An Old Proverb

The provcrb, "Necessity is the mother of inveütion," can hardly be traced to one independent source. Tlie idea was expressed by Persius, the Boman satirist, about 60 A. D. and is found in the precise íorm now quoted in Bichard Franck's "Northern Memoirs" (printed in London in 1694) and in varions later English writers.