Read each of the following. With a partner, discuss the epigram and try to discern its meaning. Restate it in modern American English. Define an epigram WITHOUT looking it up. What other characteristics do you notice about these lines?

    Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.
 
 

2. A little learning is a dangerous thing;

    Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
 
 

3. To err is human, to forgive divine.
 
 

4. True wit is Nature to advantage dressed,

    What oft was thought, but ne’er so well

             expressed.
 
 

5. Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

    Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
 
 

6. For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
 
 

7. Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

    Man never is, but always to be blessed.
 
 

8. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

    The proper study of mankind is man.