Gnome

Gnome (Gr. gnômē), a pithy and sententious saying, commonly in verse, embodying some moral sentiment or precept. The gnome belongs to the same generic class with the proverb; but it differs from a proverb in wanting that common and popular acceptance which stamps the proverb, as it were, with public authority. The use of gnomes prevailed among all the early nations, especially the Orientals; and the literatures, both sacred and profane, of most countries abound with them. In the Bible the book of Proverbs, part of Ecclesiastes, still more the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, and other books of the Old Testament contain many examples; and in the New Testament the familiar lessons of our Lord are frequently presented in this striking form. The Indian, the Arabian, and the Persian literatures also are rich in gnomes, as are those of the northern nations. But the most interesting form which they have taken is that in which we find them in Greek literature, in which the writers who have cultivated this form of composition are known as a distinct class—the Gnomic Poets (gnomikoi). The Greek gnome is commonly couched in the elegiac distich; and the most celebrated gnomie poet was Theognis of Megara, in the 6th century B.C. The remains of gnomie writers have been repeatedly edited under the title of Gnomiei Poetae Graeci, from the days of Melanchthon downwards. Standard editions are those of Brunck (1784; new ed. 1817) and Gaisford (1820; new ed. 1823). See PROVERBS.