A book of adages translated into 8 languages. Paulo Cantos attempts to adapt the BASIC English system (1930), an auxiliary international language created by a British philologist. In Britain, the system was controversial and even inspired science fiction writers like H.G. Wells and George Orwell. Cantos seeks to compare BASIC English with his own acrostics-based Portuguese BASE system. The author’s introduction is written in two languages. The central section consists of adages in 8 langua- ges: Portuguese, Spanish, German, English, French, Latin, Greek and Italian.