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diff --git a/old/63190-0.txt b/old/63190-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2990d58..0000000 --- a/old/63190-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9195 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Proverbs of All Nations, by Walter Keating Kelly - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Proverbs of All Nations - Compared, Explained, and Illustrated - -Author: Walter Keating Kelly - -Release Date: September 12, 2020 [EBook #63190] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS *** - - - - -Produced by ellinora, Eleni Christofaki and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - -Transcriber's note. - -A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book. -Formatting and special characters are indicated as follows: - - _italic_ - =bold= - - - -PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. - - - - - PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS, - - COMPARED, - - EXPLAINED, AND ILLUSTRATED. - - BY - WALTER K. KELLY. - - "Even the best proverb, though often the expression of the widest - experience in the choicest language, can be thoroughly misapplied. - It cannot embrace the whole of the subject, and apply in all cases - like a mathematical formula. Its wisdom lies in the ear of the - hearer."--FRIENDS IN COUNCIL. - - LONDON: - W. KENT & CO. (LATE D. BOGUE), 86, FLEET STREET, - AND PATERNOSTER ROW. - 1859. - - - - - WINCHESTER: - PRINTED BY HUGH BARCLAY, - HIGH STREET. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -ENGLISH LITERATURE, in most departments the richest in Europe, is yet -the only one in which there has hitherto existed no comprehensive -collection of proverbs adapted to general use. To supply this -deficiency is the object of the present attempt. - -Dean Trench, in the preface to his "Proverbs and their Lessons," -adverts to "the immense number and variety of books bearing on the -subject;" but adds, that among them all he knows not one which -appears to him quite suitable for all readers. "Either," he says, -"they include matter which cannot fitly be placed before all--or they -address themselves to the scholar alone; or, if not so, are at any -rate inaccessible to the mere English reader--or they contain bare -lists of proverbs, with no endeavour to compare, illustrate, or explain -them--or, if they do seek to explain, they yet do it without attempting -to sound the depths or measure the real significance of that which they -attempt to unfold." - -My own experience in this department of literature is entirely in -accordance with these views. I have, therefore, during the preparation -of the following pages, kept constantly before my mind the Dean of -Westminster's precise statement of things to be done, and things to be -avoided. - -British proverbs for the most part form the basis of this collection. -They are arranged according to their import and affinity, and under -each of them are grouped translations of their principal equivalents in -other languages, the originals being generally appended in footnotes. -By this means are formed natural families of proverbs, the several -members of which acquire increased significance from the light they -reflect on each other. At the same time, a source of lively interest -is opened for the reader, who is thus enabled to observe the manifold -diversities of form which the same thought assumes, as expressed in -different times and by many distinct races of men; to trace the unity -in variety which pervades the oldest and most universal monuments of -opinion and sentiment among mankind; and to verify for himself the -truth of Lord Bacon's well-known remark, that "the genius, wit, and -spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs." - -Touching as they do upon so wide a range of human concerns, proverbs -are necessarily associated with written literature. Sometimes they are -created by it; much oftener they are woven into its texture. Personal -anecdotes turn upon them in many instances; and not unfrequently they -have figured in national history, or have helped to preserve the memory -of events, manners, usages, and ideas, some of which have left little -other record of their existence. From the wealth of illustration thus -inviting my hand, I have sought to gather whatever might elucidate -and enliven my subject without overlaying it. In this way I hope to -have overcome the general objection alleged by Isaac Disraeli against -collections of proverbs, on the ground of their "unreadableness." It is -true, as he says, that "taking in succession a multitude of insulated -proverbs, their slippery nature resists all hope of retaining one in -a hundred;" but this remark, I venture to believe, does not apply -to the present collection, in which proverbs are not insulated, but -presented in orderly, coherent groups, and accompanied with appropriate -accessories, so as to fit them for being considered with some -continuity of thought. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 1 - PARENTS AND CHILDREN 26 - YOUTH AND AGE 29 - NATURAL CHARACTER 32 - HOME 36 - PRESENCE, ABSENCE, SOCIAL INTERCOURSE 39 - FRIENDSHIP 42 - CO-OPERATION, RECIPROCITY, SUBORDINATION 47 - LUCK, FORTUNE, MISFORTUNE 51 - FORETHOUGHT, CARE, CAUTION 61 - PATIENCE, FORTITUDE, PERSEVERANCE 66 - INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS 71 - THRIFT 73 - MODERATION, EXCESS 77 - THOROUGHGOING, THE WHOLE HOG 84 - WILL, INCLINATION, DESIRE 89 - CUSTOM, HABIT, USE 96 - SELF-CONCEIT, SPURIOUS PRETENSIONS 101 - SELF-LOVE, SELF-INTEREST, SELF-RELIANCE 104 - SELFISHNESS IN GIVING, SPURIOUS BENEVOLENCE 113 - INGRATITUDE 116 - THE MOTE AND THE BEAM 119 - FAULTS, EXCUSES, UNEASY CONSCIOUSNESS 122 - FALSE APPEARANCES AND PRETENCES, HYPOCRISY, DOUBLE - DEALING, TIME-SERVING 127 - OPPORTUNITY 138 - UNCERTAINTY OF THE FUTURE, HOPE 141 - EXPERIENCE 148 - CHOICE, DILEMMA, COMPARISON 152 - SHIFTS, CONTRIVANCES, STRAINED USES 155 - ADVICE 159 - DETRACTION, CALUMNY, COMMON FAME, GOOD REPUTE 161 - TRUTH, FALSEHOOD, HONESTY 165 - SPEECH, SILENCE 168 - THREATENING, BOASTING 171 - SECRETS 177 - RETRIBUTION, PENAL JUSTICE 182 - WEALTH, POVERTY, PLENTY, WANT 187 - BEGINNING AND END 191 - OFFICE 195 - LAW AND LAWYERS 200 - PHYSIC, PHYSICIANS, MAXIMS RELATING TO HEALTH 203 - CLERGY 208 - SEASONS, WEATHER 211 - NATIONAL AND LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS, LOCAL ALLUSIONS 216 - - - - -PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. - - -WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. - - - =What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.= - -This is an Englishwoman's proverb. The Italian sisterhood complain -that "In men every mortal sin is venial; in women every venial sin is -mortal."[1] These are almost the only proverbs relating to women in -which justice is done to them, all the rest being manifestly the work -of the unfair sex. - - =If a woman were as little as she is good, - A peascod would make her a gown and a hood.= - -This is Ray's version of an Italian slander.[2] The Germans say, -"Every woman would rather be handsome than good;"[3] and that, -indeed, "There are only two good women in the world: one of them is -dead, and the other is not to be found."[4] The French, in spite of -their pretended gallantry, have the coarseness to declare that "A man -of straw is worth a woman of gold;"[5] and even the Spaniard, who -sometimes speaks words of stately courtesy towards the female sex, -advises you to "Beware of a bad woman, and put no trust in a good -one."[6] - - "The crab of the wood is sauce very good - For the crab of the sea; - But the wood of the crab is sauce for a drab, - That will not her husband obey." - - =A spaniel, a woman, and a walnut tree,= - =The more they're beaten the better they be.= - -There is Latin authority for this barbarous distich.[7] The Italians -say, "Women, asses, and nuts require rough hands."[8] Much wiser is the -Scotch adage,-- - - =Ye may ding the deil into a wife, but ye'll ne'er ding him out - o' her.= - -The French make the rule more general--"Take a woman's first advice, -&c."[9] There is good reason for this if the Italian proverb is -true, "Women are wise offhand, and fools on reflection."[10] They -have less logical minds than men, but surpass them in quickness of -intuition, having, says Dean Trench, "what Montaigne ascribes to -them in a remarkable word, _l'esprit prime-sautier_--the leopard's -spring, which takes its prey, if it be to take it at all, at the first -bound." "Summer-sown corn and women's advice turn out well once in -seven years,"[11] say the Germans; and the Spaniards hold that "A -woman's counsel is no great thing, but he who does not take it is a -fool."[12] In Servia they say, "It is sometimes right even to obey a -sensible wife;" and they tell this story in elucidation of the proverb. -A Herzegovinian once asked a Kadi whether a man ought to obey his -wife, whereupon the Kadi answered that he needed not to do so. The -Herzegovinian then continued, "My wife pressed me this morning to bring -thee a pot of beef suet, so I have done well in not obeying her." Then -said the Kadi, "Verily, it is sometimes right even to obey a sensible -wife." - - =It's nae mair ferlie to see a woman greet than to see a guse gang - barefit.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, it is no more wonder to see a woman cry than to see a goose -go barefoot. "Women laugh when they can, and weep when they will."[13] -This is a French proverb, translated by Ray. Its want of rhyme makes it -probable that it was never naturalised in England. The Italians say, "A -woman complains, a woman's in woe, a woman is sick, when she likes to -be so,"[14] and that "A woman's tears are a fountain of craft."[15] - - =A woman's mind and winter wind change oft.= - -"Women are variable as April weather" (German).[16] "Women, wind, and -fortune soon change" (Spanish).[17] Francis I. of France wrote one day -with a diamond on a window of the château of Chambord,-- - - "Souvent femme varie: - Bien fou qui s'y fie." - - "A woman changes oft: - Who trusts her is right soft." - -His sister, Queen Margaret of Navarre, entered the room as he was -writing the ungallant couplet, and, protesting against such a slander -on her sex, she declared that she could quote twenty instances of man's -fickleness. Francis retorted that her reply was not to the point, and -that he would rather hear one instance of woman's constancy. "Can -you mention a single instance of her inconstancy?" asked the Queen -of Navarre. It happened that a few weeks before this conversation a -gentleman of the court had been thrown into prison upon a serious -charge; and his wife, who was one of the queen's ladies in waiting, was -reported to have eloped with his page. Certain it was that the page -and the lady had fled, no one could tell whither. Francis triumphantly -cited this case; but Margaret warmly defended the lady, and said that -time would prove her innocence. The king shook his head, but promised -that if, within a month, her character should be re-established, he -would break the pane on which the couplet was written, and grant his -sister whatever boon she might ask. Many days had not elapsed after -this, when it was discovered that it was not the lady who had fled with -the page, but her husband. During one of her visits to him in prison -they had exchanged clothes, and he was thus enabled to deceive the -jailer, and effect his escape, while the devoted wife remained in his -place. Margaret claimed his pardon at the king's hand, who not only -granted it, but gave a grand fête and tournament to celebrate this -instance of conjugal affection. He also destroyed the pane of glass, -but the calumnious saying inscribed on it has unfortunately survived. - - =A woman's tongue wags like a lamb's tail.= - - =A woman's strength is in her tongue.=--_Welsh._ - - =Arthur could not tame a woman's tongue.=--_Welsh._ - -"Three women and three geese make a market,"[18] according to the -Italians. "Foxes are all tail, and women are all tongue;" at least, it -is so in Auvergne.[19] "All women are good Lutherans," say the Danes; -"they would rather preach than hear mass."[20] "A woman's tongue is her -sword, and she does not let it rust," is a saying of the Chinese. - - =Swine, women, and bees are not to be turned.= - - ="Because" is a woman's answer.= - -And not so unmeaning an answer as flippant critics imagine. It is -an example of that much-admired figure of speech, aposiopesis, and -means--because I will have it so. "What a woman wills, God wills" -(French).[21] "Whatever a woman will she can" (Italian).[22] - - "The man's a fool who thinks by force or skill - To stem the torrent of a woman's will; - For if she will, she will, you may depend on't, - And if she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't." - -The cunning of the sex is equal to their obstinacy. "Women know a -point more than the devil" (Italian).[23] What wonder, then, if "A bag -of fleas is easier to keep guard over than a woman?" (German).[24] The -wilfulness of woman is pleasantly hinted at in the Scotch proverb, -"'Gie her her will, or she'll burst,' quoth the gudeman when his wife -was dinging him." - - =A woman conceals what she does not know.= - - =Women and bairns lein [conceal] what they kenna.=--_Scotch._ - -"To a woman and a magpie tell what you would speak in the market-place" -(Spanish).[25] Hotspur says to his wife,-- - - "Constant you are, - But yet a woman, and for secrecy - No lady closer; for I well believe - Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, - And so far I will trust thee, gentle Kate." - -But, if there is truth in proverbs, men have no right to reproach women -for blabbing. A woman can at least keep her own secret. Try her on the -subject of her age. - - =Beauty draws more than oxen.= - -"One hair of a woman draws more than a bell-rope" (German).[26] - - "And beauty draws us with a single hair." - - - =Beauty buys no beef.= - - =Beauty is no inheritance.= - -In spite of these curmudgeon maxims, let no fair maid despair whose -face is her fortune, for "She that is born a beauty is born married" -(Italian).[27] - - =Beauty is but skin deep.= - -The saying itself is no deeper. It is physically untrue, for beauty -is not an accident of surface, but a natural result and attribute -of a fine organisation. A man may sneer, like Ralph Nickleby, at a -lovely face, because he chooses rather to see "the grinning death's -head beneath it;" but Ralph was a heartless villain, and that is -only another name for a fool. "Beauty is one of God's' gifts," says -Mr. Lewes, "and every one really submits to its influence, whatever -platitudes he may think needful to issue.... How, think you, should -we ever have relished the immortal fragments of Greek literature, if -our conception of Greek men and Greek women had been formed by the -contemplation of figures such as those of Chinese art? Would any pulse -have throbbed at the Labdacidan tale had the descendants of Labdacus -risen before the imagination with obese rotundity, large ears, gashes -of mouths, eyes lurching upwards towards the temples, and no nose to -speak of? Could we with any sublime emotions picture to ourselves Fo-Ti -on the Promethean rock, or a Congou Antigone wailing her unwedded -death?" - - =Fine feathers make fine fowls.= - -Therefore, "If you want a wife choose her on Saturday, not on Sunday" -(Spanish);[28] _i.e._, choose her in undress. "No woman is ugly -when she is dressed" (Spanish);[29] at least, she is not so in her -own opinion. "The swarthy dame, dressed fine, decries the fair one" -(Spanish).[30] - - =The fairer the hostess the fouler the reckoning.= - -"A handsome landlady is bad for the purse" (French);[31] for this among -other reasons--that "If the landlady is fair, the wine too is fair" -(German).[32] - - =A bonny bride is sune buskit.=--_Scotch._ - -Buskit--dressed. She needs little adornment to enhance her charms. - - =Joan is as good as my lady in the dark.= - - =When candles are out all cats are grey.= - -"Blemishes are unseen by night,"[33] says an ancient Latin proverb; -and the Greeks held that "When the lamp is removed all women are -alike."[34] Opinions may differ on that point, but all agree that - - "The night - Shows stars and women in a better light." - -Hence the Italian warning to choose "Neither jewel, nor woman, nor -linen by candlelight;"[35] and the French hyperbole, "By candlelight a -goat looks a lady."[36] - - =If Jack is in love he is no judge of Jill's beauty.= - -"Nobody's sweetheart is ugly" (Dutch).[37] "Never seemed a prison fair -or a mistress foul" (French).[38] "Handsome is not what is handsome, -but what pleases" (Italian).[39] "He whose fair one squints says she -ogles" (German).[40] "'Red is Love's colour,' said the wooer to his -foxy charmer" (German).[41] - - =Love is blind.= - -Blind to all imperfections in the beloved object; blind also to -everything around it--to facts, consequences, and prudential -considerations. "People in love think that other people's eyes are out" -(Spanish).[42] - - =It is hard to keep flax from the lowe [fire].=-_Scotch._ - -"Man is fire, woman tow, and the devil comes and blows" (Spanish).[43] - - =Glasses and lasses are bruckle [brittle] wares.=--_Scotch._ - - =A pretty girl and a tattered gown are sure to find some hook in the - way.= - -Italy appears to be the original country of this proverb, though it is -popularly current in Ulster. "A handsome woman and a pinked or slashed -garment" are the things mentioned in the Italian proverb.[44] The -French form[45] corresponds with the Irish. - - =Where love fails we espy all faults.= - - =Faults are thick where love is thin.=--_Welsh._ - - =Hot love is soon cold.= - - =Love me little, love me long.= - - =Love of lads and fire of chats are soon in and soon - out.=--_Derbyshire._ - -Chats, _i.e._, chips. - - =Lads' love's a busk of broom, hot a while and soon - done.=--_Cheshire._ - - =Love is never without jealousy.= - -"He that is not jealous is not in love," says St. Augustin;[46] but -that depends not only upon the disposition of the lover, but upon the -point arrived at in the history of his love. Doubts and fears are -excusable in one who has not yet had assurance that his passion is -returned, but afterwards "Love expels jealousy" (French),[47] or, at -least, it ought to do so. "Love demands faith, and faith steadfastness" -(Italian);[48] but too often "Love gives for guerdon jealousy and -broken faith" (Italian).[49] It is an Italian woman's belief that "It -is better to have a husband without love than with jealousy."[50] - - =No folly to being in love.=--_Welsh._ - -"To love and to be wise is impossible" (Spanish);[51] or, as an -antique French proverb says, the two things have not the same -abode.[52] This is the creed of those who have not themselves been -lovers. As Calderon sings, in lines admirably rendered by Mr. -Fitzgerald,-- - - "He who far off beholds another dancing, - Even one who dances best, and all the time - Hears not the music that he dances to, - Thinks him a madman, apprehending not - The law which moves his else eccentric action; - So he that's in himself insensible - Of love's sweet influence, misjudges him - Who moves according to love's melody; - And knowing not that all these sighs and tears, - Ejaculations and impatiences, - Are necessary changes of a measure - Which the divine musician plays, may call - The lover crazy, which he would not do, - Did he within his own heart hear the tune - Play'd by the great musician of the world." - - =They that lie down [i.e., fall sick] for love should rise for - hunger=.--_Scotch._ - -The presumption being that, if they had not been too well fed, they -would not have been troubled with that disease. "Without Ceres and -Bacchus, Venus freezes" (Latin).[53] "No love without bread and wine" -(French).[54] - - =Old pottage is sooner heated than new made.= - -An old flame is sooner revived than a new one kindled. "One always -returns to one's first love" (French).[55] "True love never grows -hoary" (Italian).[56] - - =Love and light cannot be hid.= - - =Love and a cough cannot be hid.= - -The French add smoke to these irrepressible things.[57] _La gale_ is -sometimes enumerated with them; and the Danes say, "Poverty and love -are hard to hide."[58] - - =Love and lordship like not fellowship.= - - =Kindness comes awill.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, love cannot be forced. The Germans couple it in that respect -with singing.[59] "Who would be loved must love,"[60] say the Italians; -and "Love is the very price at which love is to be bought."[61] - -Our English proverbs on love are for the most part sarcastic or -jocular, and few of them can be compared, for grace and elevation of -feeling, with those of Italy. We have no parallels in our language -for the following:--"Love knows no measure"[62]--there are no -bounds to its trustfulness and devotion;--"Love warms more than a -thousand fires;"[63]--"He who has love in his heart has spurs in his -sides;"[64]--"Love rules without law;"[65]--"Love rules his kingdom -without a sword;"[66]--"Love knows not labour;"[67]--"Love is master -of all arts."[68] The French have one proverb on the sovereign might -of love,[69] which they borrowed from the sublime phrase in the Song -of Solomon, "Love is stronger than death;" and another expressed in -the language of their chivalric forefathers, "Love subdues all but the -ruffian's heart."[70] - - =Marry in haste and repent at leisure.= - -This proverb probably came to us from Italy;[71] but, alas! it happens -too often in all countries that "Wedlock rides in the saddle, and -repentance on the croup" (French).[72] There is a joke in the Menagiana -not unlike this:--A person meeting another riding on horseback with his -wife behind him, applied to him the words of Horace--"Post equitem -sedet atra cura."[73] "Marriage is a desperate thing," quoth Selden. -"The frogs in Æsop were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some -water, but they would not leap into the well because they could not -get out again." Consider well, then, what you are about before you put -yourself in a condition to hear it said,-- - - =You have tied a knot with your tongue you cannot undo with - your teeth.= - -Some go so far as to say that "No one marries but repents" -(French).[74] The Spaniards exclaim, in language which reminds us of -the custom of Dunmow, "The bacon of paradise for the married man that -has not repented!"[75] - - =Better wed over the mixon than over the moor.= - -The mixon is the heap of manure in the farmyard. The proverb means that -it is better not to go far from home in search of a wife--advice as -old as the Greek poet Hesiod, who has a line to this effect: "Marry, -in preference to all other women, one who dwells near thee." But a -more specific meaning has been assigned to the English proverb by -Fuller, and after him by Ray and Disraeli. They explain it as being a -maxim peculiar to Cheshire, and intended to dissuade candidates for -matrimony from taking the road to London, which lies over the moorland -of Staffordshire. "This local proverb," says Disraeli, "is a curious -instance of provincial pride, perhaps of wisdom, to induce the gentry -of that county to form intermarriages, to prolong their own ancient -families and perpetuate ancient friendships between them." This is a -mistake, for the proverb is not peculiar to Cheshire, or to any part of -England. Scotland has it in this shape:-- - - =Better woo o'er midden nor o'er moss.= - -And in Germany they give the same advice, and also assign a reason -for it, saying, "Marry over the mixon, and you will know who and what -she is."[76] The same principle is expressed in different forms in -other languages, _e.g._, "Your wife and your nag get from a neighbour" -(Italian).[77] "He that goes far to marry goes to be deceived or -to deceive" (Spanish).[78] The politic Lord Burleigh seems to have -regarded this "going far to deceive" as a very proper thing to be done -for the advancement of a man's fortune. In his "Advice to his Son" he -says, "If thy estate be good, match near home and at leisure; if weak, -far off and quickly." There is an ugly cunning in that word _quickly_. -Burleigh's advice is quite in the spirit of the French fortune -hunter's adage, "In marriage cheat who can."[79] - - =He that loseth his wife and sixpence hath lost a tester.= - -"He that loseth his wife and a farthing hath a great loss of his -farthing" (Italian).[80] In Italy also, and in Portugal, it is said -that "Grief for a dead wife lasts to the door;"[81] and even in -Provence, the land of the troubadours, they have a rhyme to this -effect:-- - - "Two good days for a man in this life: - When he weds and when he buries his wife."[82] - -Nor do the wives of Provence appear to be delighted with their conjugal -lot. Having lost their youthful plumpness through the cares and toils -of wedlock, they oddly declare that "If a stockfish became a widow -it would fatten."[83] A Spanish woman's opinion of matrimony is thus -expressed: "'Mother, what sort of a thing is marriage?' 'Daughter, it -is spinning, bearing children, and weeping.'"[84] - - =Better a tocher [dower] in her than wi' her.=--_Scotch._ - - =A man's best fortune or his worst is his wife.= - -"The day you marry you kill or cure yourself" (Spanish).[85] "Use -great prudence and circumspection," says Lord Burleigh to his son, "in -choosing thy wife, for from thence will spring all thy future good or -evil; and it is an action of life like unto a stratagem of war, wherein -a man can err but once." - - =The gude or ill hap o' a gude or ill life - Is the gude or ill choice o' a gude or ill wife.=--_Scotch._ - -There is a Spanish rhyme much to the same effect:-- - - "Him that has a good wife no evil in life that may not be borne, - can befall. - Him that has a bad wife no good thing in life can chance to, - that good you may call."[86] - - =Put your hand in the creel, and take out either an adder or an eel.= - -That's matrimony. "In buying horses and taking a wife, shut your eyes -and commend yourself to God" (Italian).[87] "Marriages are not as they -are made, but as they turn out" (Italian).[88] - - =There's but ae gude wife in the country, and ilka man thinks he's - got her.=--_Scotch._ - -It is a pleasant delusion while it lasts, and it is not incurable. -Instances of complete recovery from it are not rare. - - =A man may woo where he will, but must wed where he's - weird.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, where he is fated to wed. This is exactly equivalent to the -English saying,-- - - =Marriages are made in heaven=, - -the meaning of which Dean Trench appears to me to mistake, when he -speaks with admiration of its "religious depth and beauty." I cannot -find in it a shadow of religious sentiment. It simply implies that it -is not forethought, inclination, or mutual fitness that has the largest -share in bringing man and wife together. More efficient than all these -is the force of circumstances, or what people vaguely call chance, -fate, fortune, and so forth. In the French version of the adage, -"Marriages are _written_ in heaven,"[89] we find the special formula -of Oriental fatalism; and fatalism is everywhere the popular creed -respecting marriage. Hence, as Shakspeare says,-- - - "The ancient saying is no heresy-- - Hanging and wiving go by destiny." - -"But now consider the old proverbs to be true y saieth: that marriage -is destinie."--_Hall's Chronicles._ - - =If marriages be made in heaven some had few friends there.=--_Scotch._ - - =Ne'er seek a wife till ye hae a house and a fire burning.=--_Scotch._ - - =More belongs to a bed than four bare legs.= - - =Marriage is honourable, but housekeeping is a shrew.= - - =Sweetheart and honey-bird keeps no house.= - -"Marry, marry, and what about the housekeeping?" (Portuguese).[90] -"Remember," said a French lady to her son, who was about to make an -imprudent match, "remember that in wedded life there is only one thing -which continues every day the same, and that is the necessity of making -the pot boil." "He that marries for love has good nights and bad days" -(French).[91] "Before you marry have where to tarry," (Italian);[92] -and remember that - - =A wee house has a wide throat.= - -It costs something to support a family, however small; and "It is -easier to build two hearths than always to have a fire on one" -(German).[93] - - ='Tis hard to wive and thrive both in a year.= - - =Who weds ere he be wise shall die ere he thrive.= - - =Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing.= - -This is so far true as it discommends long engagements. - - ='Tis time to yoke when the cart comes to the capples [i.e., - horses].=--_Cheshire._ - -That is, it is time to marry when the woman wooes the man. This -provincial word "capple" is Irish also, and is allied to, but not -derived from, the Latin _caballus_. It is probably one of the few words -of the ancient Celtic tongue of Britain which were adopted into the -language of the Saxon conquerors. - - =Husbands are in heaven whose wives chide not.= - -Whether or not that heaven is ever found on earth is a question which -each man must decide from his own experience. "He that has a wife has -strife,"[94] say the French, and the Italian proverb-mongers take an -unhandsome advantage of the fact that in their language the words -"wife" and "woes" differ only by a letter.[95] St. Jerome declares that -"Whoever is free from wrangling is a bachelor."[96] - - =A smoky chimney and a scolding wife are two bad companions.= - -The Scotch couple together "A leaky house and a scolding wife," in -which they follow Solomon: "A continual dropping on a very rainy day -and a contentious woman are alike."[97] "It is better to dwell in a -corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."[98] - - - =A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd [scolding noise] will sune - mak a man run to the door.=--_Scotch._ - -Of the continental versions of this proverb the Spanish[99] seems to me -the best, and next to it the Dutch.[100] - - =It's a sair reek where the gude wife dings the gude man.=--_Scotch._ - -"A man in my country," says James Kelly, "coming out of his house with -tears on his cheeks, was asked the occasion. He said 'there was a -sair reek in the house;' but, upon further inquiry, it was found that -his wife had beaten him." "It is a sad house where the hen crows and -the cock is mute" (Spanish).[101] Though we have not this proverb in -English, we have its spirit embodied in one word, HENPECKED, which is -peculiar to ourselves. - - =The grey mare is the better horse.= - -The wife wears the breeches. "A hawk's marriage: the hen is the better -bird" (French).[102] - - =Marry above your match and you get a master.= - -"In the rich woman's house she commands always, and he never" -(Spanish).[103] "Who takes a wife for her dower turns his back on -freedom" (French).[104] But every married man is in this plight, for - - "He that has a wife has a master."[105] - -"He that's not sensible of the truth of this proverb," says James -Kelly, "may blot it out or pass it over." - - "As the good man saith, so say we; - But as the good woman saith, so it must be." - - =Wedding and ill wintering tame both man and beast.= - -"You will marry and grow tame" (Spanish).[106] - - =He that marries a widow and two daughters marries three stark - thieves.= - - =He that marries a widow and two daughters has three back doors to his - house.= - -And "The back door is the one that robs the house" (Italian).[107] - - =Never marry a widow unless her first husband was hanged.= - -Else the burden of an old Scotch song, "Ye'll never be like mine auld -gudeman," will be dinned in your ears day and night. - - =He that marries a widow will have a dead man's head cast in his dish.= - - =Happy is the wife who is married to a motherless son.= - -"Uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus," says Terence; and this is -the common testimony of experience in all ages and countries. "The -husband's mother is the wife's devil" (German, Dutch).[108] "As long -as I was a daughter-in-law I never had a good mother-in-law, and as -long as I was a mother-in-law I never had a good daughter-in-law" -(Spanish).[109] "The mother-in-law forgets that she was a -daughter-in-law" (Spanish).[110] "She is well married who has neither -mother-in-law nor sister-in-law" (Spanish).[111] Men, too, do not -always regard their wives' mothers with tender affection, and some of -the many bitter sayings against mothers-in-law seem to be common to -both sexes. Such is this queer Ulster rhyme:-- - - "Of all the ould women that ever I saw, - Sweet bad luck to my mother in-law." - -Also these Low German:--"There is no good mother-in-law but she that -wears a green gown;"[112] _i.e._, that is covered with the turf of the -churchyard;--"The best mother-in-law is she on whose gown the geese -feed;"[113] and this Portuguese, "If my mother-in-law dies, I will -fetch somebody to flay her."[114] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] A gli uomini ogni peccato mortale è veniale, alle donne ogni -veniale è mortale. - -[2] Se la donna fosse piccola come è buona, la minima foglia la farebbe -una veste e una corona. - -[3] Jedes Weib will lieber schön als fromm sein. - -[4] Es giebt nur zwei gute Weiber auf der Welt: die Eine ist gestorben, -die Andere nicht zu finden. - -[5] Un homme de paille vaut une femme d'or. - -[6] De la mala muger te guarda, y de la buena no fies nada. - -[7] - - Nux, asinus, mulier simili sunt lege ligata, - Hæc tria nil recte faciunt si verbera cessant. - -[8] Donne, asini, e noci voglion le mani atroci. - -[9] Prends le premier conseil d'une femme, et non le second. - -[10] La donna savia è all' impensata, alla pensata è matta. - -[11] Sommersaat und Weiberrath geräth alle sieben Jahre einmal. - -[12] El consejo de la muger es poco, y quien no le toma es loco. - -[13] Femme rit quand elle peut, et pleure quand elle veut. - -[14] Donna si lagna, donna si duole, donna s'ammala quando la vuole. - -[15] Lagrime di donna, fontana di malizia. - -[16] Weiber sind veränderlich wie Aprilwetter. - -[17] Muger, viento, y ventura presto se muda. - -[18] Tre oche e tre donne fann' un mercato. - -[19] Les femmes sont faites de langue, comme les renards de queue. - -[20] Alle Quinder ere gode Lutherske, de predike heller end de höre -Messe. - -[21] Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut. - -[22] Se la donna vuol, tutto la puol. - -[23] Le donne sanno un punto più del diavolo. - -[24] Ein Sack voll Flöhe ist leichter zu hüten wie ein Weib. - -[25] A la muger y a la picaza loque dirias en la plaza. - -[26] Ein Frauenhaar zieht mehr als ein Glockenseil. - -[27] Chi nasce belle, nasce maritata. - -[28] Si quieres hembra, escoge la el sabado, y no el domingo. - -[29] Compuesta no hay muger fea. - -[30] Baza compuesta la blanca denuesta. - -[31] Belle hôtesse, c'est un mal pour la bourse. - -[32] Ist die Wirthin schön, ist auch der Wein schön. - -[33] Nocte latent mendæ. - -[34] Λυχνοῦ ἀρθέντωϛ πᾶσα γυνὴ ἡ αὐτὴ. - -[35] Ne gioia, ne donna, ne tela al lume de candela. - -[36] À la chandelle la chèvre semble demoiselle. - -[37] Niemands lief is lelijk. - -[38] Il n'est point de belles prisons ni de laides amours. - -[39] Non è bello quel che è bello, ma quel che piace. - -[40] Wessen Huldin schielt, der sagt sie liebaugele. - -[41] "Roth ist die Farbe der Liebe," sagte der Buhler zu seinem fuchs -farbenen Schatz. - -[42] Piensan los enamorados que tienen los otros los ojos quebrados. - -[43] El hombre es el fuego, la muger la estopa; viene el diablo y sopla. - -[44] Bella donna e veste tagliazzata sempre s'imbatte in qualche uncino. - -[45] Belle fille et méchante robe trouvent toujours qui les accroche. - -[46] Qui non zelat non amat. - -[47] Amour chasse jalousie. - -[48] Amor vuol fede, e fede vuol fermezza. - -[49] Amor dà per mercede gelosia e rotta fede. - -[50] Meglio è aver il marito senza amore che con gelosia. - -[51] Amar y saber, no puede ser. - -[52] Aimer et savoir n'ont même manoir. [For this last word some modern -collections substitute _manière_, which makes nonsense.] - -[53] Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus. - -[54] Sans pain, sans vin, amour n'est rien. - -[55] On revient toujours à ses premières amours. - -[56] Amor vero non diventa mai canuto. - -[57] Amour, toux, et fumée en secret ne font demeurée. - -[58] Armod og Kiærlighed ere onde at dolge. - -[59] Liebe und Singen lässt sich nicht zwingen. - -[60] Chi vuol esser amato, convien ch'il ami. - -[61] Amor è il vero prezio, per che si compra amor. - -[62] Amor non conosce misura. - -[63] Scalda più amore che mills fuochi. - -[64] Chi ha l'amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a' franchi. - -[65] Amor regge senza legge. - -[66] Amor regge il suo regno senza spada. - -[67] Amor non conosce travaglio. - -[68] Di tutte le arti maestro è amore. - -[69] Amour et mort, rien n'est plus fort. - -[70] Amour soumet tout hormis cœur de félon. - -[71] Chi si marita in fretta, stenta adagio. - -[72] Fiançailles vont en selle, et repentailles en croupe. - -[73] Black care sits behind the horseman. - -[74] Nul ne se marie qui ne s'en repente. - -[75] El tocino de paraiso para el casado no arrepiso. - -[76] Heirathe über den Mist, so weisst du wer sie ist. - -[77] La moglie e il ronzino piglia dal vicino. - -[78] Quien lejos se va á casar, o va engañado, o va á engañar. - -[79] En mariage trompe qui peut. - -[80] Chi perde la moglie e un quattrino, ha gran perdita del quattrino. - -[81] Doglia di moglie morta dura fino alla porta. Dôr de mulher morta, -dura até a porta. - -[82] - - Dous bouns jours à l'home sur terro: - Quand pren mouilho, e quand l'enterro. - - -[83] Se uno marlusse venie veouso, serie grasso. - -[84] Madre, que cosa es casar? Hija, hilar, parir y llorar. - -[85] El dia que te casas, o te matas o te sanas. - -[86] - - A quien tiene buena muger, ningun mal le puede venir, - que no sea de sufrir. - A quien tiene mala muger, ningun bien le puede venir, - que bien se puede decir. - -[87] Comprar cavalli e tor moglie, serra gli occhi e raccomandati a Dio. - -[88] I matrimoni sono, non come si fanno, ma come riescono. - -[89] Les mariages sont écrits dans le ciel. - -[90] Casar, casar, e que do governo? - -[91] Qui se marie par amours, a bonnes nuits et mauvais jours. - -[92] Innanzi al maritare, habbi l'habitare. - -[93] Es ist leichter zwei Herde bauen, als auf einem immer Feuer haben. - -[94] Qui femme a, noise a. - -[95] Chi ha moglie, ha doglie. - -[96] Qui non litigat cœlebs est. - -[97] Prov. xxvii. 15. - -[98] Prov. xxi. 19. - -[99] Humo y gotera, y la muger parlera, echan el hombre de su casa -fuera. - -[100] Rook, stank, en kwaade wijven zijn die de mans uit de huizen -drijven. - -[101] Triste es la casa donde la gallina canta y el gallo calla. - -[102] Mariage d'épervier: la femelle vaut mieux que le mâle. - -[103] En la casa de muger rica, ella manda siempre, y el nunca. - -[104] Qui prend une femme pour sa dot a la liberté tourne le dos. - -[105] In French, Qui prend femme, prend maître. - -[106] Casaras y amansaras. - -[107] La porta di dietro è quella che ruba la casa. - -[108] Des Mannes Mutter ist der Frau Teufel. Een mans moer is de duivel -op den vloer. - -[109] En quanto fue nuera, nunca tuve buena suegra, y en quanto fue -suegra, nunca tuve buena nuera. - -[110] No se acuerda la suegra que fue nuera. - -[111] Aquella es bien casada, que no tiene suegra ni cuñada. - -[112] Es ist keine gut Swigar, danne die einen grünen Rok an hat. - -[113] Die beste Swigar ist die auf deren Rok die Gänse waiden. - -[114] Se minha sogra more, buscare quem a estolle. - - - - -PARENTS AND CHILDREN. - - - =Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts.= - -"Little children and headaches--great children and heartaches" -(Italian).[115] Nevertheless, "He knows not what love is that has not -children" (Italian).[116] - - =It is a wise child that knows his own father.= - -Happily, as a French sage remarks, "One is always somebody's child, and -that is a comfort."[117] "The child names the father; the mother knows -him" (Livonian). - - =The mother knows best if the child be like the father.= - - =The mither's breath is aye sweet.=--_Scotch._ - -This proverb, which belongs exclusively to Scotland, appears to me -even more "exquisitely graceful and tender" than that German and -French proverb so justly admired by Dean Trench, "Mother's truth keeps -constant youth."[118] "There is no mother like the mother that bore -us" (Spanish).[119] "The child that gets a stepmother gets a stepfather -also" (Danish).[120] - - =The crow thinks her own bird the fairest.= - -"Every mother's child is handsome" (German).[121] "No ape but swears -he has the finest children" (German).[122] "If our child squints, our -neighbour's child has a cast in both eyes" (Livonian). - - =As the old cock crows so crows the young=; _or_, - =As the old cock crows the young cock learns=. - - =If the mare have a bald face the filly will have a blaze.= - - =Trot feyther, trot mither, how can foal amble?=--_Scotch._ - -Children generally follow the example of their parents, but imitate -their faults more surely than their virtues. Thus,-- - - =A light-heeled mother makes a heavy-heeled daughter.= - -Unless the mother transfers a part of her household cares to the -daughter, the latter will grow up in sloth and ignorance of good -housewifery. "A tender-hearted mother rears a scabby daughter" (French, -Italian).[123] - - =A child may have too much of its mother's blessing.= - -Her foolish fondness may spoil it. - - =The worst store is a maid unbestowed.=--_Welsh._ - -"A house full of daughters is a cellar full of sour beer" (Dutch).[124] -Chaucer says,-- - - "He that hath more smocks than shirts in a bucking - Had need be a man of good forelooking." - -"Marry your son when you will, and your daughter when you can" -(Spanish).[125] - - =My son is my son till he's got him a wife;= - =My daughter's my daughter all the days of her life.= - -This is a woman's calculation. She knows that a son-in-law will submit -to her sway more tamely than a daughter-in-law. - - =Little pitchers have long ears.= - -"What the child hears at the fire is soon known at the minster" -(French).[126] - - =Children and fools tell truth.= - -And tell it when it were better left untold. "These terrible children!" -(French.)[127] - - =Children and fools have merry lives.= - -They quickly forget past sorrows, and are careless of the future. - - =Children suck the mother when they are young, and the father when - they are old.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[115] Fanciulli piccioli, dolor di testa; fanciulli grandi, dolor di -cuore. - -[116] Chi non ha figliuoli non sa che cosa sia amore. - -[117] On est toujours le fils de quelqu'un; cela console. - -[118] Muttertreu wird täglich neu. Tendresse maternelle toujours se -renouvelle. - -[119] No hay tal madre como la que pare. - -[120] Det Barn der faaer Stivmoder, faaer ogsaa Stifvader. - -[121] Jeder Mutter Kind ist schön. - -[122] Kein Aff', er schwört, er habe die schönsten Kinder. - -[123] Mère piteuse fait sa fille rogneuse. La madre pietosa fa la -figliuola tignosa. - -[124] Een huis vol dochters is een kelder vol zuur bier. - -[125] Casa el hijo quando quisieres, y la hija quando pudieres. - -[126] Ce que l'enfant oit au foyer, est bientost connu jusqu'au -monstier. - -[127] Ces enfants terribles! - - - - -YOUTH AND AGE. - - - =A ragged colt may make a good horse.=[128] - -An untoward boy may grow up into a proper man. This may be understood -either in a physical or a moral sense. "There is no colt but breaks -some halter" (Italian),[129] otherwise it is good for nothing -(French).[130] "Youth comes back from far" (French).[131] Do not -despair of it as lost, though it runs a mad gallop; something of the -sort is to be expected of all but those preternaturally sedate youths -who are born, as the author of "Eothen" says, with a Chifney bit in -their mouths from their mother's womb. - - =A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.= - -In the days when cock-fighting was a fashionable pastime, game chickens -that crowed too soon or too often were condemned to the spit as of -no promise or ability. "A lad," says Archbishop Whateley, "who has -to a degree that excites wonder and admiration the character and -demeanour of an intelligent man of mature years, will probably be -that and nothing more all his life, and will cease accordingly to be -anything remarkable, because it was the precocity alone that ever -made him so. It is remarked by greyhound fanciers that a well-formed, -compact-shaped puppy never makes a fleet dog. They see more promise in -the loose-jointed, awkward, and clumsy ones. And even so there is a -kind of crudity and unsettledness in the minds of those young persons -who turn out ultimately the most eminent." - - =Soon ripe soon rotten.= - -"Late fruit keeps well" (German).[132] - - =It is better to knit than to blossom.= - -Orchard trees may blossom fairly, yet bear no fruit. - - =It early pricks that will be a thorn.= - -Some indications of future character may be seen even in infancy. The -child is father of the man. - - =Soon crooks the tree that good gambrel will be.= - -A gambrel (from the Italian _gamba_, a leg) is a crooked piece of wood, -on which butchers hang the carcasses of beasts by the legs. - - =As the twig is bent the tree's inclined.= - - =Best to bend while it is a twig.= - - =It is not easy to straighten in the oak the crook that grew in the - sapling.=--_Gaelic._ - -"What the colt learns in youth he continues in old age" (French).[133] -"What youth learns, age does not forget" (Danish).[134] - - =Reckless youth maks ruefu' eild.=--_Scotch._ - -"If youth knew! if age could!" (French).[135] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[128] Spanish: De potro sarnoso buen caballo hermoso. German: Ans -klattrigen Fohlen werden die schönsten Hengste. - -[129] Non c'è polledro che non rompa qualche cavezza. - -[130] Rien ne vaut poulain s'il ne rompt son lien. - -[131] Jeunesse revient de loin. - -[132] Spät Obst liegt lange. - -[133] Ce que poulain prend en jeunesse, il le continue en vieillesse. - -[134] Det Ung nemmer, Gammel ei glemmer. - -[135] Si jeunesse savait! si vieillesse pouvait! - - - - -NATURAL CHARACTER. - - - =What's bred in the bone will never be out of the flesh.= - -What is innate is not to be eradicated by force of education or -self-discipline: these may modify the outward manifestations of a man's -nature, but not transmute that nature itself. What belongs to it "lasts -to the grave" (Italian).[136] The ancients had several proverbs to the -same purpose, such as this one, which is found in Aristophanes--"You -will never make a crab walk straight forwards"--and this Latin one, -which is repeated in several modern languages: "The wolf changes his -coat, but not his disposition;"[137]--he turns grey with age. The -Spaniards say he "loses his teeth, but not his inclinations."[138] -"What is sucked in with the mother's milk runs out in the shroud" -(Spanish).[139] Horace's well-known line,-- - - "Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret"-- - -"Though you cast out nature with a fork, it will still return"--has -very much the air of a proverb versified. The same thought is better -expressed in a French line which has acquired proverbial currency:-- - - "Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop." - -"Drive away nature, and back it comes at a gallop." This line is very -commonly attributed to Boileau, but erroneously. The author of it is -Chaulieu (?). The Orientals ascribe to Mahomet the saying, "Believe, if -thou wilt, that mountains change their places, but believe not that men -change their dispositions." - - =Cat after kind.= - -"What is born of a hen will scrape" (Italian).[140] "What is born of -a cat will catch mice" (French, Italian).[141] This proverb is taken -from the fable of a cat transformed into a woman, who scandalised her -friends by jumping from her seat to catch a mouse. "A good hound hunts -by kind" (French).[142] "It is kind father to him," as the Scotch say. -"Good blood cannot lie" (French);[143] its generous instincts are sure -to display themselves on fit occasions. On the other hand, "The son of -an ass brays twice a day."[144] We need not say what people that stroke -of grave humour belongs to. - - =Drive a cow to the ha' and she'll run to the byre.=--_Scotch._ - -She will be more at home there than in the drawing-room. "A sow prefers -bran to roses" (French).[145] "Set a frog on a golden stool, and off it -hops again into the pool" (German).[146] - - =There's no making a silk purse of a sow's ear=; - -or, "A good arrow of a pig's tail" (Spanish);[147] or, "A sieve of an -ass's tail" (Greek). - - =A carrion kite will never make a good hawk.=[148] - - =An inch o' a nag is worth a span o' an aver.=--_Scotch._ - - =A kindly aver will never make a good nag.=--_Scotch._ - -An aver is a cart horse. - - =One leg of a lark is worth the whole body of a kite.= - - =A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat.= - - =Bray a fool in a mortar, he'll be never the wiser.= - -"To wash an ass's head is loss of suds" (French).[149] "The malady that -is incurable is folly" (Spanish).[150] - - =There's no washing a blackamoor white.= - -"Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog" (French).[151] - - =A hog in armour is still but a hog.= - - =An ape is an ape, a varlet's a varlet,= - =Though he be clad in silk and scarlet.= - - =There's no getting white flour out of a coal-sack.= - -"Whatever the bee sucks turns to honey, and whatever the wasp sucks -turns to venom" (Portuguese).[152] - - =Eagles catch no flies.= - -Literally translated from a Latin adage[153] much used by Queen -Christina, of Sweden, who affected a superb disdain for petty details. -The Romans had another proverbial expression for the same idea:--"The -prætor takes no heed of very small matters,"[154] for his was a -superior court, and did not try cases of minor importance. Our modern -lawyers have retained the classical adage, only substituting the word -"law" for "prætor." They say, "De minimis non curat lex," which might, -perhaps, be freely translated, "Lawyers don't stick at trifles." - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[136] Chi l'ha per natura, fin alla fossa dura. - -[137] Lupus pilum mutat non mentem. - -[138] El lobo pierde los dientes, mas no los mientes. - -[139] Lo que en la leche se mama, en la mortaja so derrama. - -[140] Chi nasce di gallina, convien che rozzuola. - -[141] Chi naquit chat, court après les souris. Chi nasce di gatta -sorice piglia. - -[142] Bon chien chasse de race. - -[143] Bon sang ne peut mentir. - -[144] El hijo del asino dos veces rozna al dia. - -[145] Truie aime mieux bran que roses. - -[146] - - Setz einen Frosch auf goldnen Stuhl. - Er hupft doch wieder in den Pfuhl. - -[147] De rabo de puerco nunca buen virote. - -[148] On ne saurait faire d'une buse un épervier. - -[149] À laver la tête d'un âne, on perd sa lessive. - -[150] El mal que no se puede sañar, es locura. - -[151] Lavez chien, peignez chien, toujours n'est chien que chien. - -[152] Quanto chupa a abelha, mel torna, e quanto a aranha, peçonha. - -[153] Aquila non capit muscas. - -[154] De minimis non curat prætor. - - - - -HOME. - - - =Home is home, be it ever so homely.= - - =Hame is a hamely word.=--_Scotch._ - -"Homely" and "hamely" are not synonymous, but imply different ideas -associated with home. The one means plain, unadorned, fit for every-day -use; the other means familiar, pleasant, dear to the affections. "To -every bird its nest is fair" (French, Italian).[155] "East and west, -at home the best" (German).[156] "The reek of my own house," says -the Spaniard, "is better than the fire of another's."[157] The same -feeling is expressed with less energy, but far more tenderly, in a -beautiful Italian proverb, which loses greatly by translation: "Home, -my own home, tiny though thou be, to me thou seemest an abbey."[158] -Two others in the same language are exquisitely tender: "My home, my -mother's breast."[159] How touching this simple juxtaposition of two -loveliest things! Again, "Tie me hand and foot, and throw me among my -own."[160] - - =Every cock is proud on his own dunghill.= - - =A cock is crouse on his ain midden.=--_Scotch._ - -This proverb has descended to us from the Romans: it is quoted -by Seneca.[161] Its medieval equivalent, _Gallus cantat in suo -sterquilinio_, was probably present to the mind of the first Napoleon -when, in reply to those who advised him to adopt the Gallic cock as -the imperial cognizance, he said, "No, it is a bird that crows on a -dunghill." The French have altered the old proverb without improving -it, thus: "A dog is stout on his own dunghill."[162] The Italian is -better: "Every dog is a lion at home."[163] The Portuguese give us the -counterpart of this adage, saying, "The fierce ox grows tame on strange -ground."[164] - - =An Englishman's house is his castle.= - -But sanitary reformers tell him truly that he has no right to shoot -poisoned arrows from it at his neighbours. The French say, "The collier -(or charcoal burner) is master in his own house,"[165] and refer the -origin of the proverb to a hunting adventure of Francis I., which is -related by Blaise de Montluc. Having outridden all his followers, the -king took shelter at nightfall in the cabin of a charcoal burner, whose -wife he found sitting alone on the floor before the fire. She told him, -when he asked for hospitality, that he must wait her husband's return, -which he did, seating himself on the only chair the cabin contained. -Presently the man came in, and, after a brief greeting, made the king -give him up the chair, saying he was used to sit in it, and it was but -right that a man should be master in his own house. Francis expressed -his entire concurrence in this doctrine, and he and his host supped -together very amicably on game poached from the royal forest. - -"Man," said Ferdinand VII. to the Duke of Medina Celi, the premier -nobleman of Spain, who was helping him on with his great coat, -"man, how little you are!"--"At home I am great," replied the -dwarfish _grande_ (grandee). "When I am in my own house I am a king" -(Spanish).[166] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[155] À tout oiseau son nid est beau. A ogni uccello suo nido è bello. - -[156] Ost und West, daheim das Best. - -[157] Mas vale humo de mi casa que fuego de la agena. - -[158] Casa mia, casa mia, per piccina che tu sia, tu mi sembri una -badia. - -[159] Casa mia, mamma mia. - -[160] Legami mani e piei, e gettami tra' miei. - -[161] Gallus in suo sterquilinio plurimum potest. - -[162] Chien sur son fumier est hardi. - -[163] Ogni cane è leone a casa sua. - -[164] O boi bravo na terra alheia se faz manso. - -[165] Charbonnier est maître chez soi. - -[166] Mientras en mi casa estoy, rey me soy. - - - - -PRESENCE. ABSENCE. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. - - - =Long absent, soon forgotten.= - - =Out of sight, out of mind.= - -"Friends living far away are no friends" (Greek). "He that is absent -will not be the heir" (Latin).[167] "Absence is love's foe: far from -the eyes, far from the heart" (Spanish).[168] "The dead and the absent -have no friends" (Spanish).[169] "The absent are always in the wrong" -(French).[170] "Absent, none without fault; present, none without -excuse" (French).[171] - -Against this string of proverbs, all running in one direction, we may -set off the Scotch saying,-- - - =They are aye gude that are far awa'=; - -and this French one: "A little absence does much good."[172] Without -affirming too absolutely that-- - - =Friends agree best at a distance--= - -which was a proverb before Rochefoucauld wrote it down among his -maxims--we may admit that "To preserve friendship a wall must be put -between" (French);[173] and that "A hedge between keeps friendship -green" (German).[174] "Love your neighbour, but do not pull down the -hedge" (German).[175] "There are certain limits of sociality, and -prudent reserve and absence may find a place in the management of -the tenderest relations."--(_Friends in Council._) This lesson the -Spaniards embody in two proverbs, bidding you "Go to your aunt's (or -your brother's) house, but not every day."[176] Friends meet with more -pleasure after a short separation. "The imagination," says Montaigne, -"embraces more fervently and constantly what it goes in search of than -what one has at hand. Count up your daily thoughts, and you will find -that you are most absent from your friend when you have him with you. -His presence relaxes your attention, and gives your thoughts liberty to -absent themselves at every turn and upon every occasion." - - =Better be unmannerly than troublesome.= - - =I wad rather my friend should think me framet than fashious.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, I would rather my friend should think me strange (_fremd_, -German) than troublesome (_fâcheux_, French). - - =Too much familiarity breeds contempt.= - - =Ower-meikle hameliness spoils gude courtesy.= - -Hameliness means familiarity. See "Hame is a hamely word," page 36. - - =Leave welcome ahint you.=--_Scotch._ - -Do not outstay your welcome. "A guest and a fish stink on the third -day" (Spanish).[177] - - =Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.= - -"Aweel, kinsman," says Rob Boy to the baillie, "ye ken our -fashion--foster the guest that comes, further him that maun gang." "Let -the guest go before the storm bursts" (German).[178] - - =If the badger leaves his hole the tod will creep into it.=--_Scotch._ - -"He that quits his place loses it" (French).[179] "Whoso absents -himself, his share absents itself" (Arab). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[167] Absens hæres non erit. - -[168] Ausencia enemiga de amor: quan lejos de ojo tan lejos de corazon. - -[169] A muertos y a idos no hay mas amigos. - -[170] Les absents ont toujours tort. - -[171] Absent n'est point sans coulpe, ni présent sans excuse. - -[172] Un peu d'absence fait grand bien. - -[173] Pour amitié garder il faut parois entreposer. - -[174] Ein Zaun dazwischen mag die Liebe erfrischen. - -[175] Liebe deinen Nachbar, reiss aber den Zaun nicht ein. - -[176] A case de tu tia, mas no cada dia. A casa de tu hermano, mas no -cada serano. - -[177] El huesped y el pece á tres dias hiede. - -[178] Lass den Gast ziehen eh das Gewitter ausbricht. - -[179] Qui quitte sa place la perd. - - - - -FRIENDSHIP. - - - =He is my friend who grinds at my mill.= - -That is, who is serviceable to me--a vile sentiment if understood too -absolutely; but the proverb is rather to be interpreted as offering -a test by which genuine friendship may be distinguished from its -counterfeit. "Deeds are love, and not fine speeches" (Spanish).[180] -"If you love me, John, your acts will tell me so" (Spanish).[181] -"In the world you have three sorts of friends," says Chamfort; "your -friends who love you, your friends who do not care about you, and your -friends who hate you." - - =Kindness will creep where it canna gang.=--_Scotch._ - -It will find some way to manifest itself, in spite of all hinderances. -As Burns sings,-- - - "A man may hae an honest heart, - Though poortith hourly stare him; - A man may tak a neebor's part, - Yet no hae cash to spare him." - - =Friendship canna stand aye on one side.=--_Scotch._ - -It demands reciprocity. "Little presents keep up friendship" -(French);[182] and so do mutual good offices. Note that the French -proverb speaks of _little_ presents--such things as are valued between -friends, not for their intrinsic value, but as tokens of good-will. - - =Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him.= - -Take time to know him thoroughly. - - =Sudden friendship, sure repentance.= - - =Never trust much to a new friend or an old enemy.= - -Nor even to an old friend, if you and he have once been at enmity. -"Patched-up friendship seldom becomes whole again" (German).[183] -"Broken friendship may be soldered, but never made sound" -(Spanish).[184] "A reconciled friend, a double foe" (Spanish).[185] -"Beware of a reconciled friend as of the devil" (Spanish).[186] -Asmodeus, speaking of his quarrel with Paillardoc, says, "They -reconciled us, we embraced, and ever since we have been mortal enemies." - - =Old friends and old wine are best.= - -"Old tunes are sweetest, and old friends are surest," says Claud -Halcro. "Old be your fish, your oil, your friend" (Italian).[187] - - =One enemy is too many, and a hundred friends are too few.= - -Enmity is unhappily a much more active principle than friendship. - - =Save me from my friends!= - -An ejaculation often called forth by the indiscreet zeal which damages -a man's cause whilst professing to serve it. The full form of the -proverb--"God save me from my friends, I will save myself from my -enemies"--is almost obsolete amongst us, but is found in most languages -of the continent, and is applied to false friends. Bacon tells us that -"Cosmos, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends that -we read we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read we ought to -forgive our friends." - - =A full purse never lacked friends.= - -An empty purse does not easily find one. To say that "The best friends -are in the purse" (German),[188] is, perhaps, putting the matter a -little too strongly; but, at all events, "Let us have florins, and we -shall find cousins" (Italian).[189] "The rich man does not know who is -his friend."[190] This Gascon proverb may be taken in a double sense: -the rich man's friends are more than he can number; he cannot be sure -of the sincerity of any of them. "He who is everybody's friend is -either very poor or very rich" (Spanish).[191] "Now that I have a ewe -and a lamb everybody says to me, 'Good day, Peter'" (Spanish).[192] -Everybody looks kindly on the thriving man. - - =A friend in need is a friend indeed.= - -But, as such friends are rare, the Scotch proverb counsels not amiss,-- - - =Try your friend afore ye need him.= - -On the other hand, "He that would have many friends should try few -of them" (Italian).[193] "Let him that is wretched and beggared try -everybody, and then his friend" (Italian).[194] - - =A friend is never known till one have need.= - -"A friend cannot be known in prosperity, and an enemy cannot be hidden -in adversity" (Ecclesiasticus). "A sure friend is known in a doubtful -case" (Ennius)[195] - - =When good cheer is lacking, friends will be packing.= - -"The bread eaten, the company departed" (Spanish).[196] "While the pot -boils, friendship blooms" (German).[197] - - "In time of prosperity friends will be plenty; - In time of adversity not one in twenty." - - =No longer foster, no longer friend.= - - =Help yourself, and your friends will like you.= - -"Give out that you have many friends, and believe that you have few" -(French).[198] By that means you will not expose yourself to be -bitterly disappointed, and you will secure the favours which the world -is ready to bestow on those who seem to have least need of them. - - =A friend at court is better than a penny in the purse.= - - =Kissing goes by favour.= - -Every one makes it his business to "Take care of Dowb." "They are -rich," therefore, "who have friends" (Portuguese, Latin).[199] -"It is better to have friends on the market than money in one's -coffer" (Spanish).[200] "Every one dances as he has friends in the -ball-room" (Portuguese).[201] "There's no living without friends" -(Portuguese).[202] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[180] Obras son amores, que no buenas razones. - -[181] Se bien me quieres, Juan, tus obras me lo diran. - -[182] Les petits cadeaux entretiennent l'amitié. - -[183] Geflickte Freundschaft wird selten wieder ganz. - -[184] Amigo quebrado soldado, mas nunca sano. - -[185] Amigo reconciliado, amigo doblado. - -[186] De amigo reconciliado, guarte del como del diablo. Cum inimico -nemo in gratiam tuto redit.--_Pub. Syrus._ - -[187] Pesce, oglio, e amico vecchio. - -[188] Die beste Freunde stecken im Beutel. - -[189] Abbiamo pur fiorini, che trovaremo cugini. - -[190] Riché homé non sap qui ly es amyg. - -[191] Quien te todos es amigo, ó es muy pobre, ó es muy rico. - -[192] Ahora que tengo oveja y borrego, todos me dicen: En hora buena -estais, Pedro. - -[193] Chi vuol aver amici assai, ne provi pochi. - -[194] Chi è misero e senza denari, provi tutti, e poi l'amico. - -[195] Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur. - -[196] El pan comido, la compañia deshecha. - -[197] Siedet der Topf, so blühet die Freundschaft. - -[198] Il faut se dire beaucoup d'amis, et s'en croire peu. - -[199] Aquellos saō ricos que tem amigos. Ubi amici, ibi opes. - -[200] Mas valen amigos en la plaça que dineros en el arca. - -[201] Cada hum dança como tem os amigos na sala. - -[202] Naō se pode viver sem amigos. - - - - -CO-OPERATION. RECIPROCITY. SUBORDINATION. - - - =One beats the bush and another catches the birds.= - -_Sic vos non vobis._ The proverb is derived from an old way of fowling -by torchlight in the winter nights. A man walks along a lane, carrying -a bush smeared with birdlime and a lighted torch. He is preceded by -another, who beats the hedges on both sides and starts the birds, -which, flying towards the light, are caught by the limed twigs. An -imprudent use of this proverb by the Duke of Bedford, regent of -France during the minority of our Henry VI., has given it historical -celebrity. When the English were besieging Orleans, the Duke of -Burgundy, their ally, intimated his desire that the town, when taken, -should be given over to him. The regent replied, "Shall I beat the bush -and another take the bird? No such thing." These words so offended the -duke that he deserted the English at a time when they had the greatest -need of his help to resist the efforts of Charles VII. - -Here the proverb was used to imply an unfair division of spoil, or what -was called, in the duchy of Bretagne, "A Montgomery distribution--all -on one side, and nothing on the other."[203] (The powerful family of -Montgomery were in the habit of taking the lion's share.) It may also -be applied to the manner in which confederates play into each other's -hands. "The dog that starts the hare is as good as the one that catches -it" (German).[204] - - =The receiver is as bad as the thief.= - -"He sins as much who holds the sack as he who puts into it" -(French).[205] "He who holds the ladder is as bad as the burglar" -(German).[206] - - =Lie for him and he'll swear for you.= - - =Speir at Jock Thief if I be a leal man.=--_Scotch._ - -"Ask my comrade, who is as great a liar as myself" (French).[207] - - =The lion had need of the mouse.= - -The grateful mouse in the fable rescued her benefactor from the toils -by gnawing the cords. "Soon or late the strong needs the help of the -weak" (French).[208] "Every ten years one man has need of another" -(Italian).[209] - - =Two to one are odds at football.= - -"Not Hercules himself could resist such odds" (Latin).[210] "Three -helping each other are as good as six" (Spanish).[211] "Three brothers, -three castles" (Italian).[212] "Three, if they unite against a town, -will ruin it" (Arab). - - =When two ride the same horse one must ride behind.= - -And, furthermore, he must be content to journey as the foremost -man pleases. "He who rides behind does not saddle when he will" -(Spanish).[213] The question of precedence is settled in this case by -another English proverb:-- - - =He that hires the horse must ride before.= - -The man who hires or owns the horse is Capital, and Labour must ride -behind him. In other cases the question will often have to be decided -by force. - - =You stout and I stout, who shall carry the dirt out?= - -"You a lady, I a lady, who is to drive out the sow?" (Gallegan).[214] - - =Tarry breeks pays no fraught.=--_Scotch._ - - =Pipers don't pay fiddlers.= - -"One barber shaves another" (French).[215] "One hand washes the other" -(Greek).[216] "One ass scratches another" (Latin).[217] - - =Ka me, ka thee.=--_Scotch._ - - =Turn about is fair play.= - - =Giff-gaff is good fellowship.= - - =Like master like man.= - -"The beadle of the parish is always of the opinion of his reverence the -vicar" (French).[218] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] Partage de Montgomery--tout d'un coté, rien de l'autre; like -"Irish reciprocity, all on one side." - -[204] Der Hund, der den Hasen ausspürt, ist so gut wie der ihn fängt. - -[205] Autant pèche celui qui tient le sac que celui qui met dedans. - -[206] Wer die Leiter hält, ist so schuldig wie der Dieb. - -[207] Demandez-le à mon compagnon, qui est aussi menteur que moi. - -[208] - - Ou tôt ou tard, ou près ou loin, - Le fort du faible a besoin. - -[209] Ogni dieci anni un uomo ha bisogno dell' altro. - -[210] Ne Hercules contra duos. - -[211] Ayudándose tres, para peso de seis. - -[212] Tre fratelli, tre castelli. - -[213] Quien tras otro cabalga, no ensella quando quiere. - -[214] Vos dona, yo dona, quen botará a porca foro? - -[215] Un barbier rase l'autre. - -[216] Χειρ χειρα νιπτει. - -[217] Asinus asinum fricat. - -[218] Le bedeau de la paroisse est toujours de l'avis de monsieur le -curé. - - - - -LUCK. FORTUNE. MISFORTUNE. - - - =Luck is all.= - -A desperate doctrine, based on that one-sided view of human affairs -which is expressed in Byron's parody of a famous passage in Addison's -_Cato_:-- - - "'Tis not in mortals to command success; - But do you more, Sempronius--_don't_ deserve it; - And take my word you'll have no jot the less." - -"The worst pig gets the best acorn" (Spanish).[219] "A good bone -never falls to a good dog" (French);[220] and "The horses eat oats -that don't earn them" (German).[221] But this last proverb has also -another application. "Other rules may vary," says Sydney Smith, "but -this is the only one you will find without exception--that in this -world the salary or reward is always in the inverse ratio of the duties -performed." - - =The more rogue the more luck.= - - =The devil's children have the devil's luck.= - -But their prosperity is false and fleeting. "The devil's meal runs half -to bran" (French).[222] - - =God sends fools fortune.= - -It is to this version of the Latin adage, _Fortuna favet fatuis_ -("Fortune favours fools"), that _Touchstone_ alludes in his reply to -_Jacques_:-- - - "'No, sir,' quoth he; - 'Call me not fool till Heaven hath sent me fortune.'" - -The Spaniards express this popular belief by a striking figure: "The -mother of God appears to fools."[223] The Germans say, "Fortune and -women are fond of fools;"[224] and the converse of this holds good -likewise, since "Fortune makes a fool of him whom she too much favours" -(Latin);[225] and so do women sometimes. When we consider how much what -is called success in life depends on getting into one of "the main -grooves of human affairs," we can account for the common remark that -blockheads thrive better in the world than clever people, and that -"Jack gets on by his stupidity" (German).[226] It is all the difference -of going by railway and walking over a ploughed field, whether you -adopt common courses or set up one for yourself"--which is most likely -to be done by people of superior abilities. "You will see * * * * most -inferior persons highly placed in the army, in the church, in office, -at the bar. They have somehow got upon the line, and have moved on -well, with very little original motive powers of their own. Do not let -this make you talk as if merit were utterly neglected in these or other -professions--only that getting well into the groove will frequently do -instead of any great excellence."[227] With this explanation we are -prepared to admit that there is some reason in the Spanish adage, "God -send you luck, my son, and little wit will serve your turn."[228] - - =It is better to be lucky than wise.= - - =It is better to be born lucky than rich.= - - =Hap and ha'penny is warld's gear eneuch.=--_Scotch._ - -"The lucky man's bitch litters pigs" (Spanish).[229] - - =Happy go lucky.= - - =The happy [lucky] man canna be harried.=--_Scotch._ - -The lucky man cannot be ruined. Seeming disasters will often prove -to be signal strokes of good fortune for him. Such a man will have -cause to say, "The ox that tossed me threw me upon a good place" -(Spanish).[230] - - =He is like a cat, he always falls on his feet.= - - =Cast ye owre the house riggen, and ye'll fa' on your - feet.=--_Scotch._ - - =Give a man luck, and throw him into the sea.= - -"Pitch him into the Nile," say the Arabs, "and he will come up with a -fish in his mouth;" and the Germans, "If he threw up a penny on the -roof, down would come a dollar to him."[231] - - =What is worse than ill luck?= - - =An unhappy man's cart is eith to tumble.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, easily upset. It happens always to some people, as Coleridge -said of himself, to have their bread and butter fall on the buttered -side. An Irishman of this ill-starred class is commonly supposed to -have been the author of the saying,-- - - =He that is born under a threepenny planet will never be worth a - groat.= - - =If my father had made me a hatter men would have been born without - heads.= - -But the thought is not original in our language: an unlucky Arab -had long ago declared, "If I were to trade in winding-sheets no one -would die." A man of this stamp "Falls on his back and breaks his -nose" (French).[232] The Basques say of him, "Maggots breed in his -salt-box;" the Provençals, "He would sink a ship freighted with -crucifixes;" the Italians, "He would break his neck upon a straw."[233] - - =Misfortunes seldom come single.= - - =Misfortunes come by forties.=--_Welsh._ - - =Ill comes upon waur's back.=--_Scotch._ - -"Fortune is not content with crossing any man once," says Publius -Syrus.[234] "After losing, one loses roundly," say the French.[235] -The Spaniards have three remarkable proverbs to express the same -conviction:--"Whither goest thou, Misfortune? To where there is -more."[236] "Whither goest thou, Sorrow? Whither I am wont."[237] -"Welcome, Misfortune, if thou comest alone."[238] The Italian -equivalents are numerous: _e.g._, "One ill calls another."[239] "One -misfortune is the eve of another."[240] "A misfortune and a friar are -seldom alone."[241] - - =It can't rain but it pours.= - -Good fortune, as well as bad, is said to come in floods. "If the wind -blows it enters at every crevice" (Arab). - - =It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.= - -There is a local version of this proverb:-- - - =It is an ill wind that blows no good to Cornwall.= - -On the rock-bound coasts of that shire almost any wind brought gain -to the wreckers. We have seen it somewhere alleged that the general -proverb grew out of the local one; but this is certainly not the fact, -for the former exists in other languages. Its Italian equivalent[242] -agrees closely with it in form as well as in spirit. The French say, -"Misfortune is good for something;"[243] the Spaniards, "There is no -ill but comes for good;"[244] and, "I broke my leg, perhaps for my -good."[245] - - =Our worst misfortunes are those that never befall us.= - -"Never give way to melancholy: nothing encroaches more. I fight -vigorously. One great remedy is to take short views of life. Are you -happy now? Are you likely to remain so till this evening? or next week? -or next month? or next year? Then why destroy present happiness by a -distant misery which may never come at all, or you may never live to -see? For every substantial grief has twenty shadows, and most of them -shadows of your own making."--_Sydney Smith._ - - =Ye're fleyed [frightened] o' the day ye ne'er saw.=--_Scotch._ - - =You cry out before you are hurt.= - - =Never yowl till you're hit.=--_Ulster._ - - =Let your trouble tarry till its own day comes.= - - =Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.= - -In French, "À chaque jour suffit sa peine," words which were frequently -in Napoleon's mouth at St. Helena. An Eastern proverb says, "He is -miserable once who feels it, but twice who fears it before it comes." - - =When bale is highest, boot is nighest.= - -"Bale" is obsolete as a substantive, but retains a place in current -English as the root of the adjective "baleful." The proverb means that - - =When the night's darkest the day's nearest.= - - =The darkest hour is that before dawn.= - - =When things come to the worst they'll mend.= - -They must change, for that is the law of nature, and any change in them -must be for the better. Thus, "By dint of going wrong all will come -right" (French).[246] "Ill is the eve of well" (Italian);[247] and "It -is at the narrowest part of the defile that the valley begins to open" -(Persian). "When the tale of bricks is doubled Moses comes" (Hebrew). - - =He that's down, down with him.= - -Such is the way of the world--"the oppressed oppressing." "Him -that falls all the world run over" (German).[248] "He that has ill -luck gets ill usage" (Old French).[249] "All bite the bitten dog" -(Portuguese).[250] "When a dog is drowning everybody brings him drink" -(French).[251] - - =Knock a man down, and kick him for falling.= - -A sort of treatment like what they call in France "The custom of -Lorris: the beaten pay the fine."[252] It was enacted by the charter -of Lorris in the Orléanais, conferred by Philip the Fair, that any man -claiming to have money due to him from another, but unable to produce -proof of the debt, might challenge the alleged debtor to a judicial -combat with fists. The beaten combatant had judgment given against him, -which always included a fine to the lord of the manor. - - =The puir man is aye put to the warst.=--_Scotch._ - -"The ill-clad to windward" (French).[253] - - =The weakest goes to the wall=, - -which is the worst place in a crowd and a crush. Also, - - =Where the dyke is lowest men go over=. - -"Where the dam is lowest the water first runs over" (Dutch).[254] -People overrun and oppress those who are least able to resist. - - =When the tree falls every man goes with his hatchet.= - -"When the tree is down everybody gathers wood" (Latin).[255] "If my -beard is burnt, others try to light their pipes at it" (Turkish). - - =Where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered together.= - -"'We are, then, irremediably ruined, Mr. Oldbuck?' (The speaker is Miss -Wardour, in the 'Antiquary.') - -"'Irremediably? I hope not; but the instant demand is very large, and -others will doubtless pour in.' - -"'Ay, never doubt that, Monkbarns,' said Sir Arthur; 'where the -slaughter is, the eagles will be gathered together. I am like a sheep -which I have seen fall down a precipice, or drop down from sickness: -if you had not seen a single raven or hooded crow for a fortnight -before, he will not be on the heather ten minutes before half a dozen -will be pecking out his eyes (and he drew his hand over his own), and -tearing out his heart-strings before the poor devil has time to die.'" - - =Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.=--_Scotch._ - -Blame yourself only for the consequences of your own folly. Edgar, in -_Lear_, says, "This is the excellent foppery of the world! That when we -are sick in fortune we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, -and the stars: as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly -compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; -drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by a forced obedience of planetary -influence; and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on: an -admirable evasion!" - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[219] Al mas ruin puerco la mejor bellota. - -[220] À un bon chien n'échet jamais un bon os. - -[221] Die Rosse fressen den Haber die ihn nicht verdienen. - -[222] La farine du diable s'en va moitié en son. - -[223] A los bobos se les aparece la madre de Dios. - -[224] Glück und Weiber haben die Narren lieb. - -[225] Fortuna nimium quem favet stultum facit. - -[226] Hans kommt durch seine Dummheit fort. - -[227] "Companions of my Solitude." - -[228] Ventura te dé Dios, hijo, que poco saber te basta. - -[229] A quien Dios quiere bien, la perra le pare lechones. - -[230] El buey que me acornó, en buen lugar me echó. - -[231] Würf er einen Groschen aufs Dach, fiel ihm ein Thaler herunter. - -[232] Il tombe sur le dos, et se casse le nez. - -[233] Si romperebbe il collo in un filo de paglia. - -[234] Fortuna obesse nulli contenta est semel. - -[235] Après perdre, perd-on bien. - -[236] Adonde vas, mal? Adonde mas hay. - -[237] Ado vas, duelo? Ado suelo. - -[238] Bien vengas, mal, si vienes solo. - -[239] Un mal chiama l'otro. - -[240] Un mal è la vigilia dell' altro. - -[241] Un male e un frate di rado soli. - -[242] Cattivo è quel vento che a nessuno è prospero. - -[243] À quelque chose malheur est bon. - -[244] No hay mal que por bien no venga. - -[245] Quebreme el pie, quiza por bien. - -[246] À force de mal aller tout ira bien. - -[247] Il male è la vigilia del bene. - -[248] Wer da fällt, über ihm laufen alle Welt. - -[249] À qui il meschet, on lui meffaict. - -[250] Ao caõ mordido, todos o mordem. - -[251] Quand le chien se noye, tout le monde lui porte à boire. - -[252] Coutume de Lorrie: les battus payent l'amende. - -[253] Les mal vêtus devers le vent. - -[254] Waar de dam het langst is, loopt het water het eerst over. - -[255] Arbore dejectâ quivis colligit ligna. - - - - -FORETHOUGHT. CARE. CAUTION. - - - =Look before you leap.= - - =Don't buy a pig in a poke.= - -A poke is a pouch or bag. This word, which is still current in the -northern counties of England, corresponds to the French _poche_, as -"pocket" does to the diminutive, _pochette_. _Bouge_ and _bougette_ are -other forms of the same word; and from these we get "budget," which, -curiously enough, has gone back from us to its original owners with a -newly-acquired meaning, for the French Minister of Finance presents his -annual Budget like our own Chancellor of the Exchequer. The French say, -_Acheter chat en poche_: "To buy a cat in a poke," or game bag; and the -meaning of that proverb is explained by this other one, "To buy a cat -for a hare."[256] So also the Dutch,[257] the Italian,[258] &c. The pig -of the English proverb is chosen for the sake of the alliteration at -some sacrifice of sense. - - =No safe wading in unknown waters.= - -Therefore, "Swim on, and trust them not" (French).[259] "Who sees not -the bottom, let him not pass the water" (Italian).[260] - - =Beware of had I wist.= - - ="Had I wist," quoth the fool.= - -"It is the part of a fool to say, 'I should not have thought it'" -(Latin).[261] - - =Stretch your arm no farther than your sleeve will reach.= - - =Never put out your arm further than you can easily draw it back again.= - -Cautious Nicol Jarvie attributes to neglect of this rule the commercial -difficulties of his correspondent, Mr. Osbaldistone, "a gude honest -gentleman; but I aye said he was ane of them wad make a spune or spoil -a horn." Perhaps it is to ridicule the folly of attempting things -beyond the reach of our powers that the Germans tell us, "Asses sing -badly because they pitch their voices too high."[262] - - =Measure twice, cut but once.= - -An irrevocable set should be well considered beforehand. Dean Trench -quotes this as a Russian proverb, but it is to be found in James -Kelly's Scottish collection, and is common to many European languages. - - =Second thoughts are best.= - -Therefore it is well to "take counsel of one's pillow." "The morning -is wiser than the evening" (Russian), sometimes because--in Russia -especially--the evening is drunk and the morning is sober, but -generally because the night affords time for reflection. "The night -brings counsel" (French, Latin, German).[263] "Night is the mother of -thoughts" (Italian).[264] "Sleep upon it, and you will take counsel" -(Spanish).[265] - - =Raise nae mair deils than ye can lay.=--_Scotch._ - - =Do not rip up old sores.= - -"Nor stir up an evil that has been fairly buried" (Latin).[266] - - =Don't wake a sleeping dog.= - -"When misfortune sleeps let no one wake her" (Spanish).[267] - - =To lock the stable door when the steed is stolen.= - -"The wise Italians," says Poor Richard [Benjamin Franklin], "make -this proverbial remark on our nation--'The English feel, but they -do not see;' that is, they are sensible of inconveniences when they -are present, but do not take sufficient care to prevent them; their -natural courage makes them too little apprehensive of danger, so that -they are often surprised by it unprovided with the proper means of -security. When it is too late they are sensible of their imprudence. -After great fires they provide buckets and engines; after a pestilence -they think of keeping clean their streets and common sewers; and -when a town has been sacked by their enemies they provide for its -defence," &c. Other nations have their share of this after-wisdom, -as their proverbs testify: _e.g._, "To cover the well when the child -is drowned" (German).[268] "To stop the hole when the mischief is -done" (Spanish).[269] "When the head is broken the helmet is put on" -(Italian).[270] The Chinese give this good advice: "Dig a well before -you are thirsty." Be prepared for contingencies. - - =Be bail and pay for it.= - - =Afttimes the cautioner pays the debt.=--_Scotch._ - -"He that becomes responsible pays" (French).[271] "Whoso would know -what he is worth let him never be a surety" (Italian).[272] - - =In trust is treason.= - -"In this world," said Lord Halifax, "men must be saved by their want -of faith." "He will never prosper who readily believes" (Latin).[273] -"Trust was a good man; Trust not was a better" (Italian).[274] - - =He should hae a lang-shafted spune that sups kail wi' the - deil.=--_Scotch._ - - =A fidging [skittish] mare should be weel girthed.=--_Scottish._ - -A cunning, tricky fellow should be dealt with very cautiously. "A -thief does not always thieve, but be always on your guard against him" -(Russian). - - =Fast bind, fast find.= - -Shylock adds, "A proverb never stale to thrifty mind." "Who ties well, -unties well" (Spanish).[275] "Better is a turn of the key than a -friar's conscience" (Spanish).[276] - - =Grin when ye bind, and laugh when ye loose.=--_Scotch._ - -Tie the knot tightly, grin with the effort of pulling, and when you -come to untie it you will smile with satisfaction, finding it has kept -all safe. - - =Quoth the young cock, "I'll neither meddle nor make."= - -He had seen the old cock's neck wrung for taking part with his master, -and the hen's for taking part with his dame. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[256] Acheter le chat pour le lièvre. - -[257] Een kat in een zak koopen. - -[258] Non comprar gatta in sacco. - -[259] Nage toujours, et ne t'y fie pas. - -[260] Chi non vede il fondo, non passa l'acqua. - -[261] Stulti est dicere non putârim. - -[262] Esel singen schlecht, weil sie zu hoch anstimmen. - -[263] La nuit porte conseil. In nocte consilium. Guter Rath kommt über -Nacht. - -[264] La notte è la madre di piensieri. - -[265] Dormireis sobre ello, y tomareis acuerdo. - -[266] Malum bene conditum ne moveris. - -[267] Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte. - -[268] Den Brunnen decken so das Kind ertrunken ist. - -[269] Recebido ya el daño, atapar el horado. - -[270] Rotta la testa, se mette la celata. - -[271] Qui répond, paye. - -[272] Qui vuol saper quel che il suo sia, non faccia mai malleveria. - -[273] Nequaquam recte faciet qui cito credit. - -[274] Fidati era un buon uomo. Nontifidare era meglio. - -[275] Quien bien ata, bien desata. - -[276] Mas val vuelta de clave que conciencia de frate. - - - - -PATIENCE. FORTITUDE. PERSEVERANCE. - - - =Patience and posset drink cure all maladies.= - - =Patience is a plaster for all sores.= - -We trace this proverb in an exquisite passage from "honest old Decker," -as Hazlitt fondly calls him. - - "_Duke._ What comfort do you find in being so calm? - - _Candido._ That which green wounds receive from sovereign balm. - Patience, my lord! why, 'tis the soul of peace; - Of all the virtues 'tis nearest kin to heaven: - It makes men look gods. The best of men - That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer, - A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit-- - The first true gentleman that ever breathed. - The stock of patience, then, cannot be poor; - All it desires it has: what award more? - It is the greatest enemy to strife - That can be, for it doth embrace all wrongs, - And so chains up lawyers' and women's tongues. - 'Tis the perpetual prisoner's liberty-- - His walks and orchards; 'tis the bondslave's freedom, - And makes him seem proud of his iron chain, - As though he wore it more for state than pain; - It is the beggar's music, and thus sings-- - Although their bodies beg, their souls are kings. - O my dread liege! it is the sap of bliss - Bears us aloft, makes men and angels kiss; - And last of all, to end a household strife, - It is the honey 'gainst a waspish wife." - -"Patience, time, and money overcome everything" (Italian).[277] "He -who does not tire, tires adversity" (French).[278] "A stout heart -breaks ill luck" (Spanish).[279] "The remedy for hard times is to have -patience" (Arab). - - =Blaw the wind ne'er sae fast, it will lown at the last.=--_Scotch._ - - =After a storm comes a calm.= - -"After rain comes fine weather" (French).[280] - - =The longest day will have an end.= - - =Time and the hour run through the longest day.= - - =Be the day ne'er so long, at last comes even song.=[281] - -"The day will be long, but there will be an end to it,"[282] said -Damiens of that dreadful day which was to witness his death by tortures -which are the eternal disgrace of the French monarchy. - - =When one door shuts another opens.= - -When baffled in one direction a man of energy will not despair, but -will find another way to his object. - - =There is more than one yew bow in Chester.= - - =A' the keys of the country hang na in ae belt.=--_Scotch._ - - "There are hills beyond Pentland, and streams beyond Forth; - If there's lairds in the lowlands, there's chiefs in the north; - There are wild duinewassels three thousand times three, - Will cry hoich for the bonnet of Bonny Dundee!" - - =It is a sore battle from which none escape.= - -One may suffer a great loss, and yet not be totally ruined. - - =There's as good fish in the sea as ever was caught.= - -A consolatory reflection for those who have missed a good haul. The -question is, will they have industry and skill to do better another -time? "If I have lost the rings, here are the fingers still," is a -stout-hearted saying of the Italians and Spaniards.[283] - - =He that weel bides weel betides.=--_Scotch._ - -He that waits patiently comes off well at last, for "All comes right -for him who can wait" (French).[284] "Sit down and dangle your legs, -and you will see your revenge" (Italian);[285] that is, time will bring -you reparation and satisfaction. "The world is his who has patience" -(Italian).[286] "The world belongs to the phlegmatic" (Italian).[287] -"Have patience, Cossack; thou wilt come to be hetman" (Russian). - - =Set a stout heart to a stae brae [a steep hill side].=--_Scotch._ - - =Set hard heart against hard hap.= - -Go about a difficult business resolutely; confront adversity with -fortitude. - - "Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito - Quam tua te fortuna sinit." - -That you may not be easily discouraged, the French remind you that "One -may go far after he is tired."[288] - - =He that tholes [endures] overcomes.=--_Scotch._ - - =The toughest skin holds longest out.=--_Cumberland._ - -"He conquers who sticks in his saddle" (Italian).[289] "Hard pounding, -gentlemen," said Wellington at Waterloo; "but we will see who will -pound the longest." "Perseverance kills the game" (Spanish).[290] - - =Constant dropping wears the stone.=[291] - - =A mouse in time may bite in two a cable.= - -"With time and straw medlars ripen" (French).[292] "With time a -mulberry leaf becomes satin" (Chinese). - - =A rolling stone gathers no moss.= - -This is an exact rendering of an ancient Greek adage, which is repeated -with little variation in most modern languages. The Italians say, "A -tree often transplanted is never loaded with fruit."[293] - - =A man may bear till his back breaks.= - - =All lay load on the willing horse.= - -Patience may be abused. "Through much enduring come things that cannot -be endured" (Latin).[294] "Make thyself a sheep, and the wolf is ready" -(Russian). "Make yourself an ass, and you'll have every man's sack on -your back" (German).[295] "If you let them lay the calf on your back -it will not be long before they clap on the cow" (Italian).[296] "Who -lets one sit on his shoulders shall presently have him sit on his head" -(German).[297] "The horse that pulls at the collar is always getting -the whip" (French).[298] - - =Daub yourself with honey, and you'll be covered with flies.= - -"The gentle ewe is sucked by every lamb" (Italian).[299] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[277] Pazienza, tempo e denari vincono ogni cosa. - -[278] Qui ne se lasse pas lasse l'adversité. - -[279] Buen corazon quebranta mala ventura. - -[280] Après la pluie vient le beau temps. - -[281] Il n'est si long jour qui ne vienne à vêpres. Non vien di che non -venga sera. - -[282] La journée sera longue, mais elle finira. - -[283] Se ben ho perso l'anello, ho pur anche le dite. Si se perdieron -los anillos, aqui quedaron los dedillos. - -[284] Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre. - -[285] Siedi e sgambetta, vedrai la tua vendetta. - -[286] Il mondo è di chi ha pazienza. - -[287] Il mondo è dei flemmatici. - -[288] On va loin après qu'on est las. - -[289] Vince chi riman in sella. - -[290] Porfia mata la caza. - -[291] Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo. - -[292] Avec du temps et de la paille les nèfles mûrissent. - -[293] Albero spesso traspiantato mai di frutti è caricato. - -[294] Patiendo multa veniunt quæ neques pati.--_Publius Syrus._ - -[295] Wer sich zum Esel macht, dem will jeder seinen Sack auflegen. - -[296] Se ti lasci metter in spalla il vitello, quindi a poco ti -metteran la vacca. - -[297] Wer sich auf der Achsel sitzen lässt, dem sitzt man nachher auf -dem Kopf. - -[298] On touche toujours sur le cheval qui tire. - -[299] Pecora mansueta d'ogni agnello è tettata. - - - - -INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. - - - =No pains, no gains.= - - =No sweat, no sweet.= - - =No mill, no meal.= - -From the Latin, "Qui vitat molam, vitat farinam." "To stop the hand is -the way to stop the mouth" (Chinese). - - =He that wad eat the kernel maun crack the nut.=--_Scotch._ - - =He that gapes till he be fed will gape till he be dead.= - - =Naethin is got without pains but dirt and lang nails.=--_Scotch._ - -"Good luck enters by dint of cuffs" (Spanish).[300] Success in life is -only to be won by hard striving. - - "The nimble runner courses Fortune down, - And then he banquets, for she feeds the brave." - - =An idle brain's the deil's smiddy.=--_Scotch._ - - =An idle brain's the devil's workshop.= - -"By doing nothing we learn to do mischief" (Latin).[301] "He that -labours is tempted by one devil, he that is idle by a thousand" -(Italian).[302] - - =Idle dogs worry sheep.= - - =Sloth is the key of poverty.= - - =Lazy folks take the most pains.= - -"The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas; the dog that hunts does not -feel them" (Chinese). - - =Who so busy as he that has nothing to do?= - -The Italians compare such a one to a pig's tail that is going all day, -and by night has done nothing. - - =Seldom lies the deil dead by the dyke side.=--_Scotch._ - -You are not to expect that difficulties and dangers will vanish without -any effort of your own. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[300] A puñadas entran las buenas hadas. - -[301] Nihil agendo male agere discimus. - -[302] Chi fatica è tentato da un demonio, chi sta in ozio da mille. - - - - -THRIFT. - - - =Cut your coat according to your cloth.= - -Let your expenditure be proportioned to your means. "Let every one -stretch his leg according to his coverlet" (Spanish).[303] "According -to the arm be the blood-letting" (French).[304] "Meditating upon -general improvement, I often think a great deal about the climate -in these parts of the world; and I see that, without much husbandry -of our means and resources, it is difficult for us to be anything -but low barbarians. The difficulty of living at all in a cold, damp, -destructive climate is great. Socrates went about with very scanty -clothing, and men praise his wisdom in caring so little for the goods -of this life. He ate sparingly, and of mean food. That is not the way, -I suspect, that we can make a philosopher here. There are people who -would deride me for saying this, and would contend that it gives too -much weight to worldly things. But I suspect they are misled by notions -borrowed from eastern climates. Here we must make prudence one of the -substantial virtues."--(_Companions of my Solitude._) - - =A good bargain is a pickpurse.= - -Buy what you have no need of, and ere long you will sell your -necessaries. "At a good bargain bethink you" (Italian).[305] "What is -not needed is dear at a farthing" (Latin).[306] This very sensible -proverb was bequeathed to us by the elder Cato; and a wiser man than -Cato--Sydney Smith--has said, "If you want to make much of a small -income, always ask yourself these two questions: first, do I really -want it? secondly, can I do without it? These two questions, answered -honestly, will double your fortune." - - =Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets, put out the kitchen fire.= - - =Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.= - -One of the neatest repartees ever made was that which Shaftesbury -administered at the feast at which he entertained the Duke of York -(James II.). He overheard Lauderdale whispering the duke, "Fools make -feasts, and wise men eat them." Ere the sound of the last word had -died away, Shaftesbury, responding both to the words and the sense, -said, "Witty men make jests, and fools repeat them." "A fat kitchen has -poverty for a neighbour" (Italian).[307] "A fat kitchen, a lean will" -(German).[308] - - =Waste not, want not.= - - =Wilful waste makes woeful want.= - - =A small leak will sink a great ship.= - - =Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.= - - =A fool and his money are soon parted.= - - =He that gets his gear before his wit will be short while master of - it.=--_Scotch._ - - =Gear is easier gained than guided.= - - =A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it.= - -"Men," says Fielding (and he was an example of the truth he asserted), -"do not become rich by what they get, but by what they keep." "Saving -is the first gain" (Italian).[309] "Better is rule than rent" -(French).[310] - - =A penny saved is a penny got.= - - =The best is cheapest.= - -"One cannot have a good pennyworth of bad ware" (French).[311] "Much -worth never cost little" (Spanish).[312] "Cheap bargains are dear" -(Spanish).[313] - - =Misers' money goes twice to market.= - - =Keep a thing seven years and you'll find a use for it.= - - =Store is no sore.=[314] - -"He that buys by the pennyworth keeps his own house and another man's" -(Italian).[315] Partly for this reason it is that - - =A poor man's shilling is but a penny.= - - =A toom [empty] pantry makes a thriftless gudewife.=--_Scotch._ - - =Bare walls make giddy housewives.=[316] - - =All is not gain that is put into the purse.= - - =What the goodwife spares the cat eats.= - - =There was a wife that kept her supper for her breakfast, an' she was - dead or day.=--_Scotch._ - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[303] Cada uno estiende la pierna como tiene la cubierta. - -[304] Selon le bras la saignée. - -[305] A buona derrata pensavi su. - -[306] Quod non opus est, asse carum est. - -[307] A grassa cucina povertà è vicina. - -[308] Fette Küche, magere Erbschaft. - -[309] Lo sparagno è lo primo guadagno. - -[310] Mieux vaut règle que rente. - -[311] On n'a jamais bon marché de mauvaise marchandise. - -[312] Nunca mucho costó poco. - -[313] Lo barato es caro. - -[314] Abondance de bien ne nuit pas. - -[315] Chi vive a minuto fa le spese a' suoi e agli altri. - -[316] Vuides chambres font folles dames. - - - - -MODERATION. EXCESS. - - - =Enough is enough of bread and cheese.= - - =Enough is as good as a feast.= - -"A bird can roost but on one branch; a mouse can drink no more than its -fill from a river" (Chinese). "He is rich enough who does not want" -(Italian).[317] But the difficulty is to determine to a nicety the -point at which there is neither want nor surplus. Practically there is -no such point, however it may exist in theory; for - - =There's never enough where nought is left.= - - =Of enough men leave.= - -Where all is eaten up it is pretty certain that the commons were but -short. "There is not enough if there is not too much" (French).[318] -Beaumarchais makes Figaro, in speaking of love, to utter the -charming hyperbole which has passed into a proverb, "Too much is not -enough."[319] Even without being in love, everybody must agree with -Voltaire in considering - - "Le superflu, chose très nécessaire." - - =Better leave than lack.= - - =All covet, all lose.= - - =Covetousness brings nothing home.= - -"It bursts the bag" (Italian).[320] Like the dog in the fable, it -grasps at the shadow, and lets fall the substance. "He that embraces -too much holds nothing fast" (Italian, French).[321] A statue was -erected to Buffon in his lifetime, with the inscription, _Naturam -amplectitur omnem_ ("He embraces all nature"). Somebody remarked upon -this, "He that embraces too much," &c. Buffon heard of the sarcasm, and -had the inscription obliterated. - - =It is hard for a greedy eye to hae a leal heart.=--_Scotch._ - -Covetousness is scarcely consistent with honesty. - - =Much would have more.= - - =A greedy eye never had a fu' weam [belly].=--_Scotch._ - -"The dust alone can fill the eye of man" (Arab); _i.e._, the dust of -the grave can alone extinguish the lust of the eye and the cupidity -of man. Among the Arabs, the phrase, "His eye is full," signifies he -possesses every object of his desire. The Germans say, "Greed and the -eye can no man fill."[322] The Scotch say of a covetous person,-- - - =He'll get enough ae day when his mouth's fu' o' mools [mould].= - - =The greedy man and the gileynoar [cheat] are soon agreed.=--_Scotch._ - -"The sharper soon cheats the covetous man" (Spanish).[323] - - =The grace of God is gear enough=.--_Scotch._ - -This is the northern form of the proverb which Launcelot Gobbo speaks -of as being well parted between Bassanio and Shylock. "You [Bassanio] -have the grace of God, and he [Shylock] has enough." - - =Too much is stark nought.=--_Welsh._ - - =Too much of one thing is good for nothing.= - -"One may be surfeited with eating tarts" (French).[324] "Nothing too -much!" (Latin.)[325] - - =Better a wee fire to warm us than a meikle fire to burn us.=--_Scotch._ - -It is better to be content with a moderate fortune than attempt to -increase it at the risk of being ruined. "Give me the ass that carries -me, rather than the horse that throws me" (Portuguese).[326] - - =Little sticks kindle a fire, but great ones put it out.= - - =Fair and softly goes far in a day.= - - =Hooly and fairly men ride far journeys.=--_Scotch._ - -"Who goes softly goes safely, and who goes safely goes far" -(Italian).[327] "Take-it-easy and Live-long are brothers" (German).[328] - - =Fools' haste is no speed.= - - =The more haste the worse speed.= - -This seems to be derived from the Latin adage, _Festinatio tarda -est_ ("Haste is slow"). It defeats its own purpose by the blunders -and imperfect work it occasions. A favourite saying of the Emperors -Augustus and Titus was, _Festina lente_ ("Hasten leisurely"), which -Erasmus calls the king of adages. The Germans have happily translated -it,[329] and it is well paraphrased in that saying of Sir Amyas Paulet, -"Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner." A thing is done -"Fast enough if well enough" (Latin).[330] - - =Naething in haste but gripping o' fleas.=--_Scotch._ - - =Nothing should be done in haste except catching fleas.= - - =Haste trips up its own heels.= - -"He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road" -(French).[331] "Reason lies between the bridle and the spur" -(Italian).[332] - - =Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.= - - =He that rides ere he be ready wants some o' his graith.=--_Scotch._ - -He leaves some of his accoutrements behind him. Perhaps one reason why -"It is good to have a hatch before your door" is, that it may act as -a check upon such unprofitable haste. Sydney Smith adopted a similar -expedient, which he called a _screaming gate_. "We all arrived once," -he said, "at a friend's house just before dinner, hot, tired, and -dusty--a large party assembled--and found all the keys of our trunks -had been left behind. Since then I have established a screaming gate. -We never set out on our journey now without stopping at a gate about -ten minutes' distance from the house, to consider what we have left -behind. The result has been excellent." - - =Two hungry meals make the third a glutton.= - -Excess in one direction induces excess in the opposite direction. - - =Soft fire makes sweet malt.= - - =More flies are caught with a drop of honey than with a tun of vinegar.= - -"Gentleness does more than violence" (French).[333] "The gentle calf -sucks all the cows" (Portuguese).[334] - - =Ower hot, ower cauld.=--_Scotch._ - -"It may be a fire--on the morrow it will be ashes" (Arab). Violent -passions are apt to subside quickly. "Soon fire, soon ashes" (Dutch). - - =A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggin [roof] - o't.=--_Scotch._ - -No one will believe that he loves it the more for any such extravagant -demonstration. - - =Many irons in the fire, some will cool.= - - =Too many cooks spoil the broth.= - - =Ower mony greeves [overseers] hinder the wark.=--_Scotch._ - -"Too many tirewomen make the bride ill dressed" (Spanish).[335] "If the -sailors become too numerous the ship sinks" (Arab). - - =A bow o'erbent will weaken.= - - =All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.= - -"This nation, the northern part of it especially, is given to believe -in the sovereign efficacy of dulness. To be sure, dulness and solid -vice are apt to go hand in hand. But then, according to our notions, -dulness is in itself so good a thing--almost a religion. Now, if ever a -people required to be amused, it is we sad-hearted Anglo-Saxons. Heavy -eaters, hard thinkers, often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our -own, with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if -it could--many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter. If -ever there were a people who should avoid increasing their dulness by -all work and no play, we are that people. 'They took their pleasure -sadly,' says Froissart, 'after their fashion.' We need not ask of what -nation Froissart was speaking."--(_Friends in Council._) - - =The mill that is always grinding grinds coarse and fine - together.=--_Irish._ - -"The pot that boils too much loses flavour" (Portuguese).[336] - - =Play's gude while it is play.=--_Scotch._ - -Beware of pushing it to that point at which it ceases to be play. -"Leave off the play (or jest) when it is merriest" (Spanish).[337] -Never let it degenerate into horse play. "Manual play is clowns' play" -(French).[338] - - =A man may make his own dog bite him.= - -It is not wise to overstrain authority, or to drive even the weakest or -most submissive to desperation. - - =A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.= - - =Put a coward on his mettle and he'll fight the devil.= - - =Make a bridge of gold for the flying enemy.= - - =Extremes meet.= - -A proverb of universal application in the physical as well as the moral -world. Every one knows the saying of Napoleon, "From the sublime to the -ridiculous is but a step." - - =Too far east is west.= - - =No feast to a miser's.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[317] Assai è rico a chi non manca. - -[318] Assez n'y a, si trop n'y a. - -[319] Trop n'est pas assez. - -[320] La codicia rompe il saco. - -[321] Chi troppo abbraccia, nulla stringe. Qui trop embrasse, mal -étreint. - -[322] Den Geiz und die Augen kann niemand füllen. - -[323] El tramposo presto engaña al codicioso. - -[324] On se saoule bien de manger tartes. - -[325] Ne quid nimis. - -[326] Mais quero asno que me leve que cavallo que me derrube. - -[327] Chi va piano, va sano, e chi va sano, va lontano. - -[328] Gehgemach und Lebelang sind Bruder. - -[329] Eile mit Weile. - -[330] Sat cito si sat bene. - -[331] Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent. - -[332] Trà la briglia e lo speron consiste la raggion. - -[333] Plus fait douceur que violence. - -[334] Bezerrinha mansa todas as vaccas mamma. - -[335] Muchos componedores descomponen la novia. - -[336] Panella que muito ferve, o sabor perde. - -[337] A la burla, dejarla quando mas agrada. - -[338] Jeu de mains, jeu de vilains. - - - - -THOROUGHGOING. THE WHOLE HOG. - - - =In for a penny, in for a pound.= - - =As good be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.= - - =Ne'er go to the deil wi' a dishclout in your hand.=--_Scotch._ - - =Over shoes, over boots.= - -"There is nothing like being bespattered for making one defy the -slough" (French).[339] These proverbs are as true in their physical as -in their moral application. Persons who have ventured a little way will -venture further. Persons whose characters are already sullied will not -be very careful to preserve them from further discredit. When Madame -de Cornuel remonstrated with a court lady on certain improprieties -of conduct, the latter exclaimed, "Eh! madame, laissez-moi jouir -de ma mauvaise réputation" ("Do let me enjoy the benefit of my bad -reputation"). "It is the first shower that wets" (Italian).[340] "It -is all the same whether a man has both legs in the stocks or one" -(German).[341] Honest Launce "would have one that would be a dog -indeed, to be as it were a dog in all things." The author of _The -Romany Rye_ learned a practical illustration of this whole-hog doctrine -from an old ostler who had served in his youth at a small inn at -Hounslow, much patronised by highwaymen. - -"He said that when a person had once made up his mind to become a -highwayman his best policy was to go the whole hog, fearing nothing, -but making everybody afraid of him; that people never thought of -resisting a savage-faced, foul-mouthed highwayman, and if he were taken -were afraid to bear witness against him, lest he should get off and -cut their throats some time or other upon the roads; whereas people -would resist being robbed by a sneaking, pale-visaged rascal, and would -swear bodily against him on the first opportunity; adding that Abershaw -and Ferguson, two most awful fellows, had enjoyed a long career, -whereas two disbanded officers of the army, who wished to rob a coach -like gentlemen, had begged the passengers' pardon, and talked of hard -necessity, had been set upon by the passengers themselves, amongst whom -were three women, pulled from their horses, conducted to Maidstone, and -hanged with as little pity as such contemptible fellows deserved." - - =Neck or nothing, for the king loves no cripples.= - -Either break your neck or come off safe: broken limbs will make you a -less profitable subject. - - =Either a man or a mouse.= - -Either succeed or fail outright. _Aut Cæsar, aut nullus._ - - =Either win the horse or lose the saddle.= - - =Either make a spoon or spoil a horn.= - - =He that takes the devil into his boat must carry him over the sound.= - - =He that is embarked with the devil must make the passage along with - him.= - -"He that is at sea must either sail or sink" (Danish). "He that is at -sea has not the wind in his hands" (Dutch).[342] - - =Such things must be if we sell ale.= - -This was the good woman's reply to her husband when he complained of -the exciseman's too demonstrative gallantry. - - =If you would have the hen's egg you must bear with her cackling.= - - =The cat loves fish, but she is loath to wet her feet.= - -It is to this proverb that Lady Macbeth alludes when she upbraids her -husband for his irresolution:-- - - "Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' - Like the poor cat in the adage." - -"There's no catching trouts with dry breeches" (Portuguese).[343] - - =Almost and hardly save many a lie.= - -"Perhaps hinders folk from lying" (French).[344] - - =Almost was never hanged.= - -"All but saves many a man" (Danish).[345] "Almost kills no man" -(Danish).[346] "Almost never killed a fly" (German);[347] for - - =An inch of a miss is as good as a mile.= - -This is the original reading of the proverb, and better than that which -is now more current: "A miss is as good as a mile." The French say, -"For a point Martin lost his ass,"[348] and thereby hangs a tale. An -ecclesiastic named Martin, Abbot of Asello, in Italy, wished to have -this Latin line inscribed over the gate of the abbey:-- - - PORTA PATENS ESTO. NULLI CLAUDARIS HONESTO. - - "Gate be open. Never be closed against an honest man." - -It was just the time when the long-forgotten art of punctuation was -beginning to be brought into use again. Abbot Martin was not skilled -in this art, and unfortunately he employed a copyist to whom it was -equally unknown. The consequence was, that the point which ought to -have followed the word _esto_ was placed after _nulli_, completely -changing the meaning of the line, thus:-- - - PORTA PATENS ESTO NULLI. CLAUDARIS HONESTO. - - "Gate be open never. Be closed against an honest man." - -The pope, being informed of this unseemly inscription, deposed Abbot -Martin, and gave the abbey to another. The new dignitary corrected the -punctuation of the unlucky line, and added the following one:-- - - UNO PRO PUNCTO CARUIT MARTINUS ASELLO. - -That is to say, "For a single point Martin lost his Asello." But -_Asello_, the name of the abbey, being Latin for _ass_, it happened, in -the most natural way in the world, that the line was translated thus: -"For a point Martin lost his ass," and this erroneous version passed -into a proverb. Other accounts of its origin have been given; but that -which we have here set down is confirmed by the fact that in Italy they -have also another reading of the proverb, namely, _Per un punto Martino -perse la cappa_ ("For a point Martin lost the cope"); that is, the -dignity of abbot typified in that vestment. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[339] Il n'est que d'être crotté pour affronter le bourbier. - -[340] La primiera pioggia è quel che bagna. - -[341] Mit beiden Beinen im Stock, oder mit Einem, ist gleichviel. - -[342] D'e op de zee is heeft de wind niet in zijn handen. - -[343] Naô se tomaô trutas a bragas enxutas. - -[344] Peut-être empêche les gens de mentir. - -[345] Nær hielper mangen Mand. - -[346] Nærved slaaer ingen Mand ihiel. - -[347] Beinahe bringt keine Mücke um. - -[348] Pour un point Martin perdit son âne. - - - - -WILL. INCLINATION. DESIRE. - - - =Where there's a will there's a way.= - - =A wight man ne'er wanted a weapon.=--_Scotch._ - -"A good knight is not at a loss for a lance" (Italian).[349] A man -of sense and resolution will make instruments of whatever comes to -his hands; and truly "He is not a good mason who refuses any stone" -(Italian).[350] "He that has a good head does not want for hats" -(French).[351] - - =Where the will is ready the feet are light.=[352] - -"The willing dancer is easily played to" (Servian).[353] "The will does -it" (German).[354] "A voluntary burden is no burden" (Italian).[355] - - "The labour we delight in physics pain." - -"A joyous heart spins the hemp" (Servian); and, as Autolycus sings,-- - - "A merry heart goes all the day, - Your sad tires in a mile-a." - - =One man may lead the horse to the water, but fifty can't make him - drink.= - -"You cannot make an ass drink if he is not thirsty" (French).[356] "It -is bad coursing with unwilling hounds" (Dutch).[357] "A thing done -perforce is not worth a rush" (Italian).[358] - - =None so deaf as he that will not hear.= - - =Nothing is impossible to a willing mind.= - -"Madame," said M. de Calonne to a lady who solicited his aid in a -certain affair, "if the thing is possible, it is done; and if it is -impossible, it shall be done."[359] - - =Good-will should be taken in part payment.= - - =Take the will for the deed.= - -"Gifts are as the givers" (German).[360] "The will gives the work its -name." "The will is the soul of the work" (German).[361] - - =Hell is paved with good intentions.= - -A great moral conveyed in a bold figure. What is the worth of virtuous -resolutions that never ripen into action? In the German version of -the proverb a slight change greatly improves the metaphor, thus: "The -way to perdition is paved with good intentions."[362] A Scotch proverb -warns the weak in will, who are always hoping to reform and do well, -that - - =Hopers go to hell.= - - =As the fool thinks, the bell tinks.= - -We are all prone to interpret facts and tokens in accordance with our -own inclinations and habits of thought. It was not the voice of the -bells that first inspired young Whittington with hopes of attaining -civic honours; it was because he had conceived such hopes already that -he was able to hear so distinctly the words, "Turn again, Whittington, -thrice Lord Mayor of London." "People make the bells say whatever they -have a mind" (French).[363] In a Latin sermon on widowhood by Jean -Raulin, a monk of Cluny of the fifteenth century, there is a story -which Rabelais has told again in his own way. Raulin's version is -this:-- - -A widow consulted her parish priest about her entering into a -second marriage. She told him she stood in need of a helpmate and -protector, and that her journeyman, for whom she had taken a fancy, -was industrious and well acquainted with her late husband's trade. -"Very well," said the priest, "you had better marry him." "And yet," -rejoined the widow, "I am afraid to do it, for who knows but I may -find my servant become my master?" "Well, then," said the priest, -"don't have him." "But what shall I do?" said the widow; "the business -left me by my poor dear departed husband is more than I can manage by -myself." "Marry him, then," said the priest. "Ay, but suppose he turns -out a scamp," said the widow; "he may get hold of my property, and run -through it all." "Don't have him," said the priest. Thus the dialogue -went on, the priest always agreeing in the last opinion expressed by -the widow, until at length, seeing that her mind was actually made -up to marry the journeyman, he told her to consult the church bells, -and they would advise her best what to do. The bells were rung, and -the widow heard them distinctly say, "Do take your man; do take your -man."[364] Accordingly she went home and married him forthwith; but it -was not long before he thrashed her soundly, and made her feel that -instead of his mistress she had become his servant. Back she went to -the priest, cursing the hour when she had been credulous enough to -act upon his advice. "Good woman," said he, "I am afraid you did not -rightly understand what the bells said to you." He rang them again, and -then the poor woman heard clearly, but too late, these warning words: -"Do not take him, do not take him."[365] - - =Wilful will do it.= - - =A wilfu' man maun hae his way.=--_Scotch._ - - =He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar.=--_Scotch._ - -Cupar is a town in Fife, and that is all that Scotch paræmiologists -condescend to tell us about it. I suppose there is some special reason -why insisting on going to Cupar above all other towns is a notable -proof of pig-headedness. - - =A wilful man never wanted woe.= - - =A wilfu' man should be unco' wise.=--_Scotch._ - -Since he chooses to rely on his own wisdom only. - - =Forbidden fruit is sweet.= - -"Sweet is the apple when the keeper is away" (Latin).[366] - - "Stolen sweets are always sweeter, - Stolen kisses much completer; - Stolen looks are nice in chapels; - Stolen, stolen be your apples!" - -So sings Leigh Hunt, translating from the Latin of Thomas Randolph. The -doctrine of these poets is as old as Solomon, who says, "Stolen waters -are sweet"--a sentence thus paraphrased in German: "Forbidden water is -Malmsey."[367] A story is told of a French lady, say Madame du Barry, -who happened once, by some extraordinary chance, to have nothing but -pure water to drink when very thirsty. She took a deep draught, and -finding in it what the Roman emperor had sighed for in vain--a new -pleasure--she cried out, "Ah! what a pity it is that drinking water is -not a sin!" - -"There is no pleasure but palls, and all the more if it costs nothing" -(Spanish).[368] "The sweetest grapes hang highest" (German).[369] "The -figs on the far side of the hedge are sweeter" (Servian). "Every fish -that escapes appears greater than it is" (Turkish). Upon the same -principle it is that what nature never intended a man to do is often -the very thing he particularly desires to do. "A man who can't sing is -always striving to sing" (Latin);[370] and generally "He who can't do, -always wants to do" (Italian).[371] - - =Forbid a fool a thing, and that he'll do.= - -Of course; and so will many a one who is otherwise no fool. What mortal -man, to say nothing of women, but would have done as Bluebeard's wife -did when left in the castle with the key of that mysterious chamber in -her hand? - - =Every man has his hobby.= - -Some men pay dearly for theirs. "Hobby horses are more costly than -Arabians" (German).[372] - - =You may pay too dear for your whistle.= - -The origin of this saying, which has become thoroughly proverbial, is -found in the following extract from a paper by its author, Benjamin -Franklin:--"When I was a child of seven years old my friends on a -holiday filled my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop -where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound -of a whistle that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I -voluntarily offered him all my money for it. I then came home, and -went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but -disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, -understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given for it four -times as much as it was worth. This put me in mind what good things I -might have bought with the rest of the money; and they laughed at me -so much for my folly that I cried with vexation, and the reflection -gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. This, however, -was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so -that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing I said to -myself, 'Don't give too much for the whistle;' and so I saved my money. -As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I -met with many, very many who gave too much for the whistle." - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[349] A buon cavalier non manca lancia. - -[350] Non è buon murator chi rifiuta pietra alcuna. - -[351] Qui a bonne tête ne manque pas de chapeaux. - -[352] In German, Willig Herz macht leichte Füsse. - -[353] Also Flemish, Het is licht genoech ghepepen die gheein danst. - -[354] Der Wille thut's. - -[355] Carica volontaria non carica. - -[356] On ne saurait faire boire un âne s'il n'a pas soif. - -[357] Med onwillige honden is kwaad hazen vangen. - -[358] Cosa fatta per forza non val una scorza. - -[359] Madame, si la chose est possible, elle est déjà faite; et si elle -est impossible, elle se fera. - -[360] Die Gaben sind wie die Geber. - -[361] Der Wille giebt dem Werke den Namen. Der Wille ist des Werkes -Seele. - -[362] Der Weg zum Verderben ist mit guten Vorsätzen gepflastert. - -[363] On fait dire aux cloches tout ce qu'on veut. - -[364] Prends ton valet; prends ton valet. - -[365] Ne le prends pas; ne le prends pas. - -[366] Dulce pomum quum abest custos. - -[367] Verbotenes Wasser ist Malvasier. - -[368] No hay placer que no enhade, y mas se cuesta de balde. - -[369] Die süssessten Trauben hangen am höchsten. - -[370] Qui nescit canere semper canere laborat. - -[371] Chi non puole, sempre vuole. - -[372] Steckenpferde sind theuerer als arabische Hengste. - - - - -CUSTOM. HABIT. USE. - - - =Use will make a man live in a lion's den.= - - =Custom is second nature.= - -Cicero says nearly the same thing,[373] and the thought has been -happily amplified by Sydney Smith. "There is no degree of disguise or -distortion which human nature may not be made to assume from habit; -it grows in every direction in which it is trained, and accommodates -itself to every circumstance which caprice or design places in its -way. It is a plant with such various aptitudes, and such opposite -propensities, that it flourishes in a hothouse or the open air; is -terrestrial or aquatic, parasitical or independent; looks well in -exposed situations, thrives in protected ones; can bear its own -luxuriance, admits of amputation; succeeds in perfect liberty, -and can be bent down into any forms of art; it is so flexible and -ductile, so accommodating and vivacious, that of two methods of -managing it--completely opposite--neither the one nor the other need -be considered as mistaken and bad. Not that habit can give any new -principle; but of those numerous principles which _do_ exist in our -nature it entirely determines the order and force."[374] - - =Once a use and ever a custom.= - -"Continuance becomes usage" (Italian).[375] Whatever we do often -we become more and more apt to do, till at last the propensity to -the act becomes irresistible, though the performance of it may have -ceased to give any pleasure. In Fielding's "Life of Jonathan Wild" -the great thief is represented as playing at cards with the Count, a -professed gambler. "Such was the power of habit over the minds of these -illustrious persons, that Mr. Wild could not keep his hands out of the -Count's pockets, though he knew they were empty; nor could the Count -abstain from palming a card, though he was well aware Mr. Wild had no -money to pay him." "To change a habit is like death" (Spanish).[376] - - =Hand in use is father o' lear [learning, skill].=--_Scotch._ - - =Practice makes perfect.= - -"By working in the smithy one becomes a smith" (Latin, French).[377] -"Use makes the craftsman" (Spanish, German).[378] An emir had bought a -left eye of a glassmaker, and was vexed at finding that he could not -see with it. The man begged him to give it a little time; he could not -expect that it would see all at once so well as the right eye, which -had been for so many years in the habit of it. We take this whimsical -story from Coleridge, who does not tell us in what Oriental Joe Miller -he found it. - - =No man is his craft's master the first day.= - -But some people fancy themselves masters born, like "The Portuguese -apprentice, who does not know how to sew, and wants to cut out" -(Spanish).[379] - - =You must spoil before you spin.= - -"One learns by failing" (French).[380] "He that stumbles, if he does -not fall, quickens his pace" (Spanish).[381] - - =Eith to learn the cat to the kirn.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, it is easy to teach the cat the way to the churn. Bad habits -are easily acquired. - - =A bad custom is like a good cake--better broken than kept.= - -On this proverb is built, perhaps, that remark of Hamlet's which has -troubled some hypercritical commentators, "A custom more honoured -in the breach than in the observance." An energetic Spanish proverb -counsels us to "Break the leg of a bad habit."[382] - - =At Rome do as Rome does.= - -"Wherever you be, do as you see" (Spanish).[383] A very terse German -proverb, which can only be paraphrased in English, signifies that -whatever is customary in any country is proper and becoming there; -or, as we might say, "After the land's manner is mannerly."[384] -The Livonians say, "In the land of the naked people are ashamed of -clothes." "So many countries, so many customs" (French).[385] In a -Palais Royal farce a captain's wife is deploring her husband, who has -been eaten by the Caffres. Her servant observes, by way of consolation, -_Mais, madame, que voulez-vous? Chaque peuple a ses usages_ ("Well, -well, ma'am, after all, every people has its own manners and customs"). - - =Tell me the company you keep, and I'll tell you what you are.= - - =Tell me with whom thou goest, and I'll tell thee what thou doest.= - -"He that lives with cripples learns to limp" (Dutch).[386] "He that -goes with wolves learns to howl" (Spanish);[387] and "He that lies down -with dogs gets up with fleas" (Spanish).[388] - - =As good be out of the world as out of the fashion.= - -Mrs. Hutchinson tells us that, although her husband acted with the -Puritan party, they would not allow him to be religious because his -hair was not in their cut. The world will more readily forgive a -breach of all the Ten Commandments than a violation of one of its own -conventional rules. "Fools invent fashions, and wise men follow them" -(French).[389] "Better be mad with all the world than wise alone" -(French).[390] - - =The used key is always bright.= - -"'If I rest, I rust,' it says" (German).[391] - - =Drawn wells have sweetest water=; - -but - - =Standing pools gather filth.= - - =Drawn wells are seldom dry.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[373] Ferme in naturam consuetudo vestitur.--(_De Invent._ i. 2.) - -[374] "Lectures on Moral Philosophy." - -[375] Continuanza diventa usanza. - -[376] Mudar costumbre a par de muerte. - -[377] Fabricando fit faber. En forgeant on devient forgeron. - -[378] El usar saca oficial. Uebung macht den Meister. - -[379] Aprendiz de Portugal, no sabe cozer y quiere cortar. - -[380] On apprend en faillant. - -[381] Quien estropieça, si no cae, el camino adelanta. - -[382] A mal costumbre, quebrarle la pierna. - -[383] Por donde fueres, haz como vieres. - -[384] Ländlich, sittlich. - -[385] Tant de pays, tant de guises. - -[386] Die bij kreupelen woont, leert hinken. - -[387] Quien con lobos anda, á aullar se enseña. - -[388] Quien con perros se echa, con pulgas se levanta. - -[389] Les fous inventent les modes, et les sages les suivent. - -[390] Il vaut mieux être fou avec tous que sage tout seul. - -[391] Rast ich, so rost ich, sagt der Schlüssel. - - - - -SELF-CONCEIT. SPURIOUS PRETENSIONS. - - - =How we apples swim!= - -So said the horsedung as it floated down the stream along with fruit. - - ="We hounds slew the hare," quoth the messan [lapdog].=--_Scotch._ - -"They came to shoe the horses of the pacha; the beetle then stretched -out its leg" (Arab). We read in the Talmud that "All kinds of wood -burn silently except thorns, which crackle and call out, 'We, too, are -wood.'" "It was prettily devised of Æsop," says Lord Bacon; "the fly -sat upon the axle of the chariot, and said, 'What a dust do I raise!'" - - =A' Stuarts are no sib to the king.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, not all who bear that name belong to the royal race of -Stuarts. "There are fagots and fagots,"[392] as Molière says. "It is -some way from Peter to Peter" (Spanish).[393] Great is the difference -between the terrible lion of the Atlas and the Cape lion, the most -currish of enemies; but the distinction is not always borne in mind by -the readers of hunting adventures in Africa. The traditional name of -lion beguiles the imagination of the unwary. In like manner some people -think that - - "A book's a book, although there's nothing in it." - - =Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king's horses.= - -But asses deceive themselves. "He that is a donkey, and believes -himself a deer, finds out his mistake at the leaping of the ditch" -(Italian).[394] "Doctor Luther's shoes will not fit every village -priest" (German).[395] - - =Many talk of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow.= - -Like Justice Shallow, who "talks," says Falstaff, "as familiarly of -John of Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I'll be sworn -he never saw him but once in the tiltyard, and then he burst his head -for crowding among the marshal's men." Southey, in his "Omniana," has -applied this proverb to that numerous class of literary pretenders who -quote and criticise flippantly works known to them only at second-hand. -A conspicuous living example of this class is M. Ponsard, who, on the -occasion of his reception into the French Academy, discoursed about -Shakspeare, and talked of him as "the divine WILLIAMS," by way of -evincing his proficiency in the language of the great dramatist whose -works he disparaged. - - =The man on the dyke is always the best hurler.=--_Munster._ - -The looker-on is quite sure he could do better than the actual players. -In Connaught, which is as renowned for its neck-or-nothing riders as -Munster is for its vigorous hurlers, they have this parallel saying,-- - - =The best horseman is always on his feet.= - -In the same sense the Dutch aver that "The best pilots stand on -shore."[396] - - =In a calm sea every man is a pilot.= - - =Every man can tame a shrew but he that hath her.= - - =Bachelors' wives and maids' children are always well taught.= - -"He that has no wife chastises her well; he that has no children rears -them well" (Italian).[397] - - =I ask your pardon, coach; I thought you were a wheelbarrow when - I stumbled over you.=--_Irish._ - -An ironical apology for offence given to overweening vanity or pride. - - =The pride of the cobbler's dog, that took the wall of a wagon of hay, - and was squeezed to death.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[392] Il y a fagots et fagots. - -[393] Algo va de Pedro a Pedro. - -[394] Chi asino è, e cervo si crede, al salto del fosso se ne avvede. - -[395] Doctor Luthers Schuhe sind nicht allen Dorfpriestern gerecht. - -[396] De beste stuurlieden staan aan land. - -[397] Chi non ha moglie, hen la batte; chi non ha figliuoli, ben gli -pasce. - - - - -SELF-LOVE. SELF-INTEREST. SELF-RELIANCE. - - - =Charity begins at home.= - -This is literally true in the most exalted sense. The best of men are -those - - "Whose circling charities begin - With the few loved ones Heaven has placed them near, - Nor cease till all mankind are in their sphere." - -It is only in irony, or by an odious abuse of its meaning, that the -proverb is ever used as an apology for that sort of charity which not -only begins at home, but ends there likewise. The egotist holds that -"Self is the first object of charity" (Latin).[398] "Every one has his -hands turned towards himself" (Polish). - - =The priest christens his own child first.= - - =Every man draws the water to his own mill.= - -"Every cow licks her own calf." "Every old woman blows under her own -kettle" (both Servian). "Every one rakes the embers to his own cake" -(Arab). - - =Every one for himself, and God for us all.= - - =Let every tub stand on its own bottom.= - - =Let every sheep hang by its own shank.= - - =Let every herring hang by its own gills.= - - =Ilka man for his ain hand, as John Jelly fought.=--_Scotch._ - -James Kelly gives this explanation of the last proverb: "As two men -were fighting, John Jelly, going by, made up fiercely to them. Each -of them asked him which he was for: he answered for his own hand, and -beat them both." Sir Walter Scott puts aside John Jelly's claims to -the authorship of this saying, and assigns it to Harry Smith in the -following passage of "The Fair Maid of Perth." After the fight between -the clans at the North Inch, Black Douglas says to the smith,-- - -"'If thou wilt follow me, good fellow, I will change thy leathern apron -for a knight's girdle, thy burgage tenement for an hundred-pound-land -to maintain thy rank withal.' - -"'I thank you humbly, my lord,' said the smith dejectedly, 'but I have -shed blood enough already; and Heaven has punished me by foiling the -only purpose for which I entered the contest.' - -"'How, friend?' said Douglas. 'Didst thou not fight for the Clan -Chattan, and have they not gained a glorious conquest?' - -"'I fought for my own hand,' said the smith indifferently; and the -expression is still proverbial in Scotland--meaning, 'I did such a -thing for my own pleasure, not for your profit.'" - - =Let every man skin his own skunk.=--_American._ - -The skunk stinks ten thousand times worse than a polecat. "Let every -one carry his own sack to the mill" (German).[399] "Let every fox take -care of his own tail" (Italian).[400] - - =Self do, self have.= - -Analogous to this manly proverb, as it seems to me, is that Dutch one, -"Self's the man."[401] which Dean Trench has stigmatised as merely -selfish. - - =The tod [fox] ne'er sped better than when he went his ain - errand.=--_Scotch._ - - =The miller ne'er got better moulter [toll] than he took wi' his ain - hands.=--_Scotch._ - - =If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.= - - =If you would have a thing well done, do it yourself.= - - =Ilka man's man had a man, and that made the Treve fa'.=--_Scotch._ - -The Treve was a strong castle built by Black Douglas. The governor left -the care of it to a deputy, and he to an under-deputy, through whose -negligence the castle was taken and burned. "The master bids the man, -and the man bids the cat, and the cat bids its tail" (Portuguese).[402] -General Sir Charles Napier, speaking of what happened during his -temporary absence from the government of Corfu, says, "How entirely all -things depend on the mode of executing them, and how ridiculous mere -theories are! My successor thought, as half the world always thinks, -that a man in command has only to order, and obedience will follow. -Hence they are baffled, not from want of talent, but from inactivity, -vainly thinking that while they spare themselves every one under them -will work like horses." - - =Trust not to another for what you can do yourself.= - -"Let him that has a mouth not say to another, Blow" (Spanish).[403] - - =The master's eye will do more work than both his hands.= - -"If you have money to throw away, set on workmen and don't stand by" -(Italian);[404] for - - =When the cat's away the mice will play.= - - =The eye of the master fattens the steed.= - - =The master's eye puts mate on the horse's bones.=--_Ulster._ - -"The answers of Perses and Libys are worth observing," says Aristotle. -"The former being asked what was the best thing to make a horse fat, -answered, 'The master's eye;' the other being asked what was the -best manure, answered, 'The master's footsteps.'" The Spaniards have -naturalised this last saying among them.[405] Aulus Gellius tells a -story of a man who, being asked why he was so fat, and the horse he -rode was so lean, replied, "Because I feed myself, and my servant feeds -my horse." - - =He that owns the cow goes nearest her tail.=--_Scotch._ - - =Let him that owns the cow take her by the tail.= - -In some districts formerly the cattle used to suffer greatly from want -of food in winter and the early months of spring, before the grass had -begun to grow. Sometimes a cow would become so weak from inanition -as to be unable to rise if she once lay down. In that case it was -necessary to lift her up by means of ropes passed under her, and, -above all, by pulling at her tail. This part of the job being the most -important, was naturally undertaken by the owner of the animal. - - =A man is a lion in his own cause.= - - =No man cries stinking fish.= - -On the contrary, every man tries to set off his wares to the best -advantage, to make the most of his own case, &c. "Every one says, 'I -have right on my side'" (French).[406] Æsop's currier maintained that -for fortifying a town there was "nothing like leather." "Every potter -praises his pot, and all the more if it is cracked" (Spanish).[407] -"'Tis a mad priest who blasphemes his relics" (Italian).[408] "Ask the -host if he has good wine" (Italian).[409] One canny Scot compliments -another with the remark,-- - - =Ye'll no sell your hens on a rainy day;= - -for then the drenched feathers, sticking close to the skin, give the -poor things a lean and miserable appearance. - - =It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.= - - =He was scant o' news that tauld his feyther was hangit.=--_Scotch._ - - =They're scarce of news that speak ill of their mother.=--_Ulster._ - -Why wantonly proclaim one's own disgrace, or expose the faults or -weaknesses of one's kindred or people? "If you have lost your nose -put your hand before the place" (Italian).[410] Napoleon I. used -to say, "People should wash their foul linen in private." It is a -necessary process, but there is no need to obtrude it on public notice. -English writers often quote this maxim of the great emperor, but -always mistranslate it. _Il faut laver son linge sale en famille_ is -one of those idiomatic phrases which cannot be perfectly rendered in -another tongue. Our version of it comes near to its meaning, which is -quite lost in that which is commonly given, "People should wash their -foul linen at home." The point of the proverb lies in the privacy it -enjoins, and this might equally be secured whether the linen was washed -at home or sent away to the laundress's. _En famille_ and _at home_ are -not mutually equivalent; the former means more than the latter. We may -say of a man who entertains a large dinner party in his own house, that -he dines at home, but not that he dines _en famille_. - - =No one knows where the shoe pinches so well as he that wears it.= - - =I wot weel where my ain shoe binds me.=--_Scotch._ - -Erskine used to say that when the hour came that all secrets should be -revealed we should know the reason why--shoes are always too tight. -The authorship of this proverb is commonly ascribed to Æmilius Paulus; -but the story told by Plutarch leaves it doubtful whether Æmilius -used a known illustration or invented one. The relations of his wife -remonstrated with him on his determination to repudiate her, she being -an honourable matron, against whom no fault could be alleged. Æmilius -admitted the lady's worth; but, pointing to one of his shoes, he asked -the remonstrants what they thought of it. They thought it a handsome, -well-fitting shoe. "But none of you," he rejoined, "can tell where it -pinches me." - - =The heart knoweth its own bitterness.=--_Solomon._ - -"To every one his own cross seems heaviest" (Italian);[411] but "The -burden is light on the shoulders of another" (Russian); and "One does -not feel three hundred blows on another's back" (Servian). "Another's -care hangs by a hair" (Spanish).[412] "Another's woe is a dream" -(French).[413] Rochefoucauld has had the credit of saying, "We all -have fortitude enough to endure the woes of others;" but it is plain -from this and other examples that he was not the sole author of -"Rochefoucauld's Maxims." - - ="The case is altered," quoth Plowden.= - -Edmund Plowden, an eminent lawyer in Queen Elizabeth's time, was asked -by a neighbour what remedy there was in law against the owner of some -hogs that had trespassed on the inquirer's ground. Plowden answered -he might have very good remedy. "Marry, then," said the other, "the -hogs are your own." "Nay, then, neighbour, the case is altered," quoth -Plowden. Others, says Ray, with more probability make this the original -of the proverb:--"Plowden being a Roman Catholic, some neighbours -of his who bare him no good-will, intending to entrap him and bring -him under the lash of the law, had taken care to dress up an altar -in a certain place, and provided a layman in a priest's habit, who -should say mass there at such a time. And, withal, notice thereof was -given privately to Mr. Plowden, who thereupon went and was present -at the mass. For this he was presently accused and indicted. He at -first stands upon his defence, and would not acknowledge the thing. -Witnesses are produced, and among the rest one who deposed that he -himself performed the mass, and saw Mr. Plowden there. Saith Plowden to -him, 'Art thou a priest, then?' The fellow replied, 'No.' 'Why, then, -gentlemen,' quoth he, 'the case is altered: no priest, no mass,' which -came to be a proverb, and continues still in Shropshire with this -addition--'The case is altered,' quoth Plowden: 'no priest, no mass.'" - - =That's Hackerton's cow.= - -This is a proverb of the Scotch, and they tell a story about it -similar to the first of the two above related of Plowden. Hackerton -was a lawyer, whose cow had gored a neighbour's ox. The man told him -the reverse. "Why, then," said Hackerton, "your ox must go for my -heifer--the law provides that." "No," said the man, "your cow killed -my ox." "The case alters there," said Hackerton. Many a one exclaims -in secret with the Spaniard, "Justice, but not brought home to -myself!"[414] "Nobody likes that" (Italian).[415] - - =Close sits my shirt, but closer my skin.= - -That is, I love my friends well, but myself better; or, my body is -dearer to me than my goods. - - =Near is my petticoat, but nearer is my smock.= - -Some friends are nearer to me than others. There are many proverbs in -various languages similar to the last two in meaning and in form, but -with different terms of comparison. They are all modelled upon the -Latin adage, "The tunic is nearer than the frock."[416] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[398] Prima sibi charitas. - -[399] Trage Jeder seinem Sack zur Mülle. - -[400] Ogni volpe habbia cura della sua coda. - -[401] Zelf is de Man. - -[402] Manda o amo ao moço, o moço ao gato, e o gato ao rabo. - -[403] Quien tiene boca no diga á otro, sopla. - -[404] Chi ha quattrini a buttar via, metti operaji, e non vi stia. - -[405] El pie del dueño estiercol para la heredad. - -[406] Chacun dit, "J'ai bon droit." - -[407] Cada ollero su olla alaba, y mas el que la tiene quebrada. - -[408] Matto è quel prete chi bestemma le sue reliquie. - -[409] Dimanda al hosto s'egli ha buon vino. - -[410] Se tu hai meno il naso, ponviti una mano. - -[411] Ad ognuno par più grave la croce sua. - -[412] Cuidado ageno de pelo cuelga. - -[413] Mal d'autrui n'est que songe. - -[414] Justicia, mas no por mi casa. - -[415] A nessuno piace la giustizia a casa sua. - -[416] Tunica pallio propior. - - - - -SELFISHNESS IN GIVING. SPURIOUS BENEVOLENCE. - - - =Throw in a sprat to catch a salmon.= - - =To give an apple where there is an orchard.= - - =The hen's egg aft gaes to the ha' - To bring the guse's egg awa'.=--_Scotch._ - -"He gives an egg to get a chicken" (Dutch).[417] "Giving is fishing" -(Italian).[418] "To one who has a pie in the oven you may give a bit of -your cake" (French).[419] - - =Have a horse of thine own, and thou may'st borrow another's.=--_Welsh._ - -"People don't give black-puddings to one who kills no pigs" -(Spanish).[420] In Spain it is usual, when a pig is killed at home, -to make black-puddings, and give some of them to one's neighbours. -There is thrift in this; for black-puddings will not keep long in that -climate, and each man generally makes more than enough for his own -consumption. "People lend only to the rich" (French).[421] "People give -to the rich, and take from the poor" (German).[422] "He that eats capon -gets capon" (French).[423] - - =He that has a goose will get a goose.= - - =When the child is christened you may have godfathers enough.= - -Offers of service abound when a man no longer needs them. "When our -daughter is married sons-in-law turn up" (Spanish).[424] - - =When I am dead make me caudle.= - - =When Tom's pitcher is broken I shall get the sherds.= - -Tom's generosity is like the charity of the Abbot of Bamba, who "Gives -away for the good of his soul what he can't eat" (Spanish).[425] The -dying bequest of another worthy of the same nation is proverbial. One -of his cows had strayed away and been long missing. His last orders -were, that if this cow were found it should be for his children; if -otherwise, it should be for God. Hence the proverb, "Let that which is -lost be for God." - - =They are free of fruit that want an orchard.= - - =They are aye gudewilly o' their horse that hae nane.=--_Scotch._ - -Their good-natured willingness to lend it is remarkable. "No one is -so open-handed as he who has nothing to give" (French).[426] "He that -cannot is always willing" (Italian).[427] - - =Hens are free o' horse corn.=--_Scotch._ - -People are apt to be very liberal of what does not belong to them. -"Broad thongs are cut from other men's leather" (Latin).[428] "Of my -gossip's loaf a large slice for my godson" (Spanish).[429] - - =Steal the goose, and give the giblets in alms.= - -"Steal the pig, and give away the pettitoes for God's sake" -(Spanish).[430] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[417] Hij geeft een ei, om een kucken te krijgen. - -[418] Donare si chiama pescare. - -[419] À celui qui a son pâté au four, on peut donner de son gateau. - -[420] A quien no mata puerco, no le dan morcilla. - -[421] On ne prête qu'aux riches. - -[422] Reichen giebt man, Armen nimmt man. - -[423] Qui chapon mange, chapon lui vient. - -[424] A hija casada salen nos yernos. - -[425] El abad de Bamba, lo que no puede comer, da lo por su alma. - -[426] Nul n'est si large que celui qui n'a rien à donner. - -[427] Chi non puole, sempre vuole. - -[428] Ex alieno tergore lata secantur lora. - -[429] Del pan de mi compadre buen zatico á mi ahijado. - -[430] Hurtar el puerco, y dar los pies por Dios. - - - - -INGRATITUDE. - - - =Save a thief from the gallows, and he will be the first to cut your - throat.= - -The galley-slaves whom Don Quixote rescued repaid the favour by pelting -him and his squire with stones, and stealing Sancho's ass. The French -have two parallels for the English proverb. "Take a churl from the -gibbet, and he will put you on it;"[431] and, "Unhang one that is -hanged, and he will hang thee."[432] Observe the comprehensiveness of -this second proposition: it seems to embody an old superstition not yet -quite extinct, for it warns us against the danger of rescuing _any_ man -from the rope, no matter how he may have come to have his neck in the -noose. An incident curiously illustrative of this doctrine was thus -narrated in a Belgian newspaper, the _Constitutionnel_ of Mons, of July -4th, 1856:-- - -"The day before yesterday a man hanged himself at Wasmes. Another man -chanced to come upon him before life was extinct, and cut him down in a -state of insensibility. Presently up came some women, who clamorously -protested against the rashness, not of the would-be suicide, but of -his rescuer, and assured the latter that his only chance of escaping -the dangers to which his imprudent humanity exposed him was to hang -the poor wretch up again. The man was so alarmed that he was actually -proceeding to do as they advised him, when fortunately the burgomaster -arrived just in time to prevent that act of barbarous stupidity." - -This incident will at once remind the reader of the wreck scene in _The -Pirate_. Mordaunt Merton is hastening to save Cleveland, when Bryce -Snailsfoot thus remonstrates with him:--"Are you mad? You that have -lived sae lang in Zetland to risk the saving of a drowning man? Wot ye -not, if you bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you some -capital injury?" - - =Put a snake in your bosom, and when it is warm it will sting you.= - -"Bring up a raven, and it will peck out your eyes" (Spanish, -German).[433] "Do good to a knave, and pray God he requite thee not" -(Danish).[434] - - =I taught you to swim, and now you'd drown me.= - - =A's tint that's put into a riven dish.=--_Scotch._ - -All is lost that is put into a broken dish, or that is bestowed upon a -thankless person. The Arabs say, "Eat the present, and break the dish" -(in which it was brought). The dish will otherwise remind you of the -obligation. - - - =Eaten bread is soon forgotten.= - -"A favour to come is better than a hundred received" (Italian).[435] -Who was it that first defined gratitude as a lively sense of future -favours? "When I confer a favour," said Louis XIV., "I make one ingrate -and a hundred malcontents." - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[431] Ôtez un vilain du gibet, il vous y mettra. - -[432] Dépends le pendard, il te pendra. - -[433] Cria el cuervo, y sacarte ha los ojos. Erziehst du dir einen -Raben, so wird er dir die Augen ausgraben. - -[434] Giör vel imod en Skalk, og bed til Gud han lönner dig ikke. - -[435] Val più un piacere da farsi, che cento di quelli fatti. - - - - -THE MOTE AND THE BEAM. - - - =Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.= - -In Timbs's "Things not Generally Known" it is related that, "In the -reign of James I., the Scotch adventurers who came over with that -monarch were greatly annoyed by persons breaking the windows of -their houses; and among the instigators was Buckingham, the court -favourite, who lived in a large house in St. Martin's Fields, which, -from the great number of windows, was termed the Glass House. Now, -the Scotchmen, in retaliation, broke the windows of Buckingham's -mansion. The courtier complained to the king, to whom the Scotchmen -had previously applied, and the monarch replied to Buckingham, 'Those -who live in glass houses, Steenie, should be careful how they throw -stones.' _Whence arose the common saying._" - -It did not arise thence, nor was King James its inventor. This is one -of a thousand instances in which a story growing out of a proverb has -been presented as that proverb's origin. "Let him that has glass tiles -[panes] not throw stones at his neighbour's house" is a maxim common -to the Spaniards[436] and Italians,[437] and older than the time of -James I. The Italians say also, "Let him that has a glass skull not -take to stone-throwing."[438] - - =The kiln calls the oven burnt house.= - - =The pot calls the kettle black bottom.= - -When negroes quarrel they always call each other "dam niggers." "The -pan says to the pot, 'Keep off, or you'll smutch me'" (Italian).[439] -"The shovel makes game of the poker" (French).[440] "Said the raven -to the crow, 'Get out of that, blackamoor'" (Spanish).[441] "One ass -nicknames another Longears" (German).[442] "Dirty-nosed folk always -want to wipe other folks' noses" (French).[443] - - ="Crooked carlin!" quoth the cripple to his wife.=--_Scotch._ - - ="God help the fool!" said the idiot.= - - =Who more ready to call her neighbour "scold" than the arrantest - scold in the parish?= - -"A harlot repented for one night. 'Is there no police officer,' she -exclaimed, 'to take up harlots?'" (Arab.) - - =Point not at others' spots with a foul finger.= - - =Physician, heal thyself.= - -"Among wonderful things," say the Arabs of Egypt, "is a sore-eyed -person who is an oculist." - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[436] El que tiene tejados de vidrio no tire piedras al de su vicino. - -[437] Chi ha tegoli di vetro non tiri sassi al vicino. - -[438] Chi ha testa di vetro non faccia a' sassi. - -[439] La padella dice al pajuolo, Fatti in la che tu mi tigni. - -[440] La pêle se moque du fourgon. - -[441] Dijó la corneja al cuervo, Quitate allá, negro. - -[442] Ein Esel schimpft den andern, Langohr. - -[443] Les morveux veulent toujours moucher les autres. - - - - -FAULTS. EXCUSES. UNEASY CONSCIOUSNESS. - - - =Lifeless, faultless.= - - =It is a good horse that never stumbles.= - -To which some add, "And a good wife that never grumbles." None are -immaculate. "Are there not spots on the very sun?" (French.)[444] A -member of the parliament of Toulouse, apologising to the king or his -minister for the judicial murder of Calas perpetrated by that body, -quoted the proverb, "_Il n'y a si bon cheval qui ne bronche_" ("It is a -good horse," &c.). He was answered, "_Passe pour un cheval, mais toute -l'écurie!_" ("A horse, granted; but the whole stable!") - - =He that shoots always right forfeits his arrow.=--_Welsh._ - -But in no instance was the forfeit ever exacted, for the best archer -will sometimes miss the mark, just as "The best driver will sometimes -upset" (French).[445] "A good fisherman may let an eel slip from him" -(French);[446] and "A good swimmer is not safe from all chance of -drowning" (French).[447] "The priest errs at the altar" (Italian).[448] - - =They ne'er beuk [baked] a gude cake but may bake an ill.=--_Scotch._ - - =He rode sicker [sure] that ne'er fell.=--_Scotch._ - - =It is a sound head that has not a soft piece in it.= - - =Every rose has its prickles.= - - =Every bean has its black.= - - =Every path has its puddle.= - - =There never was a good town but had a mire at one end of it.= - -"He who wants a mule without fault may go afoot" (Spanish).[449] - - =A' things wytes [blames] that no weel fares.=--_Scotch._ - -When a man fails in what he undertakes he will be sure to lay the blame -on anything or anybody rather than on himself. "He that does amiss -never lacks excuses" (Italian).[450] "He is a bad shot who cannot find -an excuse" (German).[451] "The archer that shoots ill has a lie ready" -(Spanish).[452] That is rather a strong expression: the Italians, with -a more refined appreciation of the eloquence displayed by missing -marksmen, declare that "A fine shot never killed a bird."[453] - - =A bad workman always complains of his tools.= - - =A bad excuse is better than none.= - -This, of course, is ironical. The Italians hold that "Any excuse is -good provided it avails" (Italian);[454] and, "Any excuse will serve -when one has not a mind to do a thing."[455] We may easily guess what -the Spaniards mean by "Friday pretexts for not fasting."[456] - - ="Who can help sickness?" quoth the drunken wife, when she lay in - the gutter.= - - =Guilt is jealous.= - - =A guilty conscience needs no accuser.= - - =Touch a galled horse, and he'll wince.= - - =A galled horse will not endure the comb.= - -"Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung," cries Hamlet, -mockingly, as he reads the effect of the play in the fratricide's -countenance. "He that is in fault is [steeped] in suspicion" -(Italian),[457] and his uneasy conscience betrays itself at every -casual touch. He is like "One who has a straw tail," and "is always -afraid of its catching fire" (Italian).[458] - - =He that has a muckle [big] nose thinks ilka ane is speaking - o't.=--_Scotch._ - -"Hair is not to be mentioned in a bald man's house" (Livonian). "Never -speak of a rope in the house of one who was hanged" (Italian);[459] -or, as the Hebrew form of the precept runs, "He that hath had one of -his family hanged may not say to his neighbour, 'Hang up this fish.'" -Formerly the French used to say, "It is not right to speak of a rope -_in presence_ of one who has been hanged;"[460] and they could say -this without apparent absurdity, because it was customary to pardon a -culprit if the rope broke after he had been tied up to the gallows, -and therefore it was not an uncommon thing to meet with living men who -had known what it was to dance upon nothing. The memory of this usage -is preserved in a proverbial expression--"The hope of the man that is -hanging, that the rope may break"[461]--to signify an exceedingly faint -hope. But so much was this indulgence abused, that it was abolished by -all the parliaments, that of Bordeaux setting the example in 1524 by an -edict directing that the sentence should always be, "Hanged until death -ensue." - - =If the cap fits you, wear it.= - -"Let him that feels itchy, scratch" (French).[462] "Let him wipe his -nose that feels the need of it" (French).[463] - - =Nothing was ever ill said that was not ill taken.= - -"He who takes [offence] makes [the offence]" (Latin).[464] "What do -you say 'Hem!' for when I pass?" cries an angry Briton to a Frenchman. -"Monsieur Godden," replies the latter, "what for pass you when me say -'Hem?'" - - =Ye're busy to clear yourself when naebody files you.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, you defend yourself when nobody accuses you; and that -looks very suspicious. "He that excuses himself accuses himself" -(French).[465] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[444] Le soleil lui-même, n'a-t-il pas des taches? - -[445] Il n'est si bon charretier qui ne verse. - -[446] À bon pêcheur échappe anguille. - -[447] Bon nageur de n'être noyé n'est pas sûre. - -[448] Erra il prete all' altare. - -[449] Quien quisiere mula sin tacha, andese á pie. - -[450] A chi fa male mai mancano scuse. - -[451] Ein schlechter Schüz der keine Ausrede findet. - -[452] Vallestero que mal tira, presto tiene la mentira. - -[453] Bel colpo non ammazzò mai uccello. - -[454] Ogni scusa è buona, pur che vaglia. - -[455] Ogni scusa è buona, quando non si vuol far alcuna cosa. - -[456] Achaques al viernes por no le ayunar. - -[457] Chi è in difetto, è in sospetto. - -[458] Chi ha coda di paglia ha sempre paura che gli pigli fuoco. - -[459] Non recordar il capestro in casa dell' impiccato. - -[460] Il ne faut pas parler de corde devant un pendu. - -[461] L'espoir du pendu, que la corde casse. - -[462] Qui se sent galeux, se gratte. - -[463] Qui se sent morveux, se mouche. - -[464] Qui capit, ille facit. - -[465] Qui s'excuse, s'accuse. - - - - -FALSE APPEARANCES AND PRETENCES, HYPOCRISY, DOUBLE DEALING, -TIME-SERVING. - - - =Appearances are deceitful.=[466] - -"Always judge your fellow-passengers to be the opposite of what -they strive to appear to be. For instance, a military man is not -quarrelsome, for no man doubts his courage; but a snob is. A clergyman -is not over-straitlaced, for his piety is not questioned; but a cheat -is. A lawyer is not apt to be argumentative; but an actor is. A woman -that is all smiles and graces is a vixen at heart: snakes fascinate. -A stranger that is obsequious and over-civil without apparent cause -is treacherous: cats that purr are apt to bite and scratch. Pride is -one thing, assumption is another; the latter must always get the cold -shoulder, for whoever shows it is no gentleman: men never affect to be -what they are, but what they are not. The only man who really is what -he appears to be is--a gentleman."[467] - -The Livonians say, "The bald pate talks most of hair;" and, "You may -freely give a rope to one who talks about hanging." - - =All is not gold that glitters.= - -Yellow iron pyrites is as bright as gold, and has often been mistaken -for it. The worthless spangles have even been imported at great cost -from California. "Every glowworm is not a fire" (Italian).[468] "Where -you think there are flitches of bacon there are not even hooks to hang -them on" (Spanish).[469] Many a reputed rich man is insolvent. - - =Much ado about nothing.= - - ="Great cry and little wool," as the fellow said when he sheared the - pig.= - - ="Meikle cry and little woo'," as the deil said when he clipped the - sow.=--_Scotch._ - -"The mountain is in labour, and will bring forth a mouse" (Latin).[470] - - =Likely lies in the mire, and unlikely gets over.=--_Scotch._ - -Some from whom great things are expected fail miserably, while others -of no apparent mark or promise surprise the world by their success. - - =You must not hang a man by his looks.= - -He may be one who is - - =Like a singed cat, better than likely.= - -"Under a shabby cloak there is a good tippler" (Spanish).[471] - - ="Care not" would have it.= - -Affected indifference is often a trick to obtain an object of secret -desire. "I don't want it, I don't want it," says the Spanish friar; -"but drop it into my hood."[472] "'It is nought, it is nought,' saith -the buyer; but when he is gone he vaunteth." The girls of Italy, who -know how often this artifice is employed in affairs of love, have a -ready retort against sarcastic young gentlemen in the adage, "He that -finds fault would fain buy."[473] - - =He that lacks [disparages] my mare would buy my mare.=--_Scotch._ - - ="Sour grapes," said the fox when he could not reach them.= - - =Empty vessels give the greatest sound.= - - =Shaal [shallow] waters mak the maist din.=--_Scotch._ - - =Smooth waters run deep=; _or_, - - =Still waters are deep.= - -This last proverb, we are told by Quintus Curtius, was current among -the Bactrians.[474] The Servians say, "A smooth river washes away -its banks;" the French, "There is no worse water than that which -sleeps."[475] "The most covered fire is the strongest" (French);[476] -and "Under white ashes there is glowing coal" (Italian).[477] - - =Where God has his church the devil will have his chapel.= - -So closely does the shadow of godliness--hypocrisy--wait upon the -substance. "Very seldom does any good thing arise but there comes -an ugly phantom of a caricature of it, which sidles up against the -reality, mouths its favourite words as a third-rate actor does a great -part, under-mimics its wisdom, overacts its folly, is by half the world -taken for it, goes some way to suppress it in its own time, and perhaps -lives for it in history."[478] Defoe says,-- - - "Wherever God erects a house of prayer, - The devil always builds a chapel there; - And 'twill be found upon examination - The latter has the largest congregation." - -The proverb is found in nearly the same form in Italian.[479] The -French say, "The devil chants high mass,"[480] which reminds us of -another English adage, applied by Antonio to Shylock:-- - - =The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.= - -"The devil lurks behind the cross,"[481] say the Spaniards; and, "By -the vicar's skirts the devil gets up into the belfry."[482] "O the -slyness of sin," exclaim the Germans, "that puts an angel before every -devil!"[483] The same thought is expressed by the Queen of Navarre in -her thirteenth novel, where she speaks of "covering one's devil with -the fairest angel."[484] - - =When the fox preaches beware of the geese.= - -"The fox preaches to the hens" (French).[485] "When the devil says his -paternosters he wants to cheat you" (French).[486] "Never spread your -wheat in the sun before the canter's door" (Spanish).[487] - - =A honey tongue, a heart of gall.= - - =Mouth of ivy, heart of holly.=--_Irish._ - - =He can say, "My jo," an' think it na.=--_Scotch._ - - =Too much courtesy, too much craft.= - -"The words of a saint, and the claws of a cat" (Spanish).[488] "The cat -is friendly, but scratches" (Spanish).[489] "Many kiss the hands they -would fain see chopped off" (Arab and Spanish).[490] - - =He looks as if butter would not melt in his mouth.= - -Said of a very demure person, sometimes with this addition, "And yet -cheese would not choke him." Of such a person the Spaniards say, "He -looks as if he would not muddy the water."[491] "Nothing is more like -an honest man than a rogue" (French).[492] - - =They're no a' saints that get holy water.=--_Scotch._ - -"All are not saints who go to church" (Italian).[493] "Not all who -go to church say their prayers" (Italian).[494] "All are not hunters -who blow the horn" (French).[495] "All are not soldiers who go to the -wars" (Spanish).[496] "All are not princes who ride with the emperor" -(Dutch).[497] - - =The chamber of sickness is the chapel of devotion.= - - =The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;= - =The devil grew well, the devil a monk was he!=[498] - -"All criminals turn preachers when they are under the gallows" -(Italian).[499] "The galley is in a bad way when the corsair promises -masses and candles" (Spanish).[500] - - =Satan rebukes sin.=[501] - - =The friar preached against stealing when he had a pudding in his - sleeve.= - -According to the Italian account of the affair the friar had a goose in -his scapulary on that occasion.[502] "Do as the friar says, and not as -he does" (Spanish).[503] - - =To carry two faces under one hood.= - -To be what the Romans called "double-tongued,"[504] or, in French -phrase, "To wear a coat of two parishes."[505] Formerly the parishes in -France were bound to supply the army with a certain number of pioneers -fully equipped. Every parish claimed the right of clothing its man -in its own livery, whence it followed that when two parishes jointly -furnished only one man, he was dressed in parti-coloured garments, each -parish being represented by a moiety which differed from the other in -texture and colour. - - =To hold with the hare, and hunt with the hounds.= - -To be "Jack o' both sides," true to neither. The Romans called this -"Sitting on two stools."[506] Liberius Mimus was one of a new batch -of senators created by Cæsar. The first day he entered the august -assembly, as he was looking about for a seat, Cicero said to him, "I -would make room for you were we not so crowded together." This was -a sly hit at Cæsar, who had packed the senate with his creatures. -Liberius replied, "Ay, you always liked to sit on two stools." - -The Arabs say of a double dealer, "He says to the thief, 'Steal;' and -to the house-owner, 'Take care of thy goods.'" "He howls with the -wolves when he is in the wood, and bleats with the sheep in the field" -(Dutch).[507] - - =If the devil is vicar, you'll be clerk.= - - =If the deil be laird, you'll be tenant.=--_Scotch._ - - =The deil ne'er sent a wind out of hell but he wad sail with - it.=--_Scotch._ - - =The vicar of Bray will be vicar of Bray still.= - -Simon Aleyn, or Allen, held the Vicarage of Bray, in Berkshire, for -fifty years, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and -Elizabeth, and was always of the religion of the sovereign for the time -being. First he was a Papist, then a Protestant, afterwards a Papist, -and a Protestant again; yet he would by no means admit that he was a -turncoat. "No," said he, "I have always stuck to my principle, which -is this--to live and die vicar of Bray." His consistency has been -celebrated in a song, the burden of which is,-- - - "For this is law I will maintain-- - Unto my dying day, sir, - Whatever king in England reign, - I'll be the vicar of Bray, sir." - -"Such are men, now o' days," says Fuller, "who, though they cannot turn -the wind, they turn their mills, and set them so that wheresoever it -bloweth, their grist should certainly be grinded." - -During the Peninsular war many signboards over shops and hotels in -Spanish towns had on one side the arms of France, and on the other -those of Spain, which were turned as best suited the interests of their -owners and the feelings of the troops which alternately occupied the -place. - - =It is hard to sit at Rome and fecht wi' the pope.=--_Scotch._ - -Prudence forbids us to engage in strife with those in whose power we -are. Oriental servility goes further than this. Bernier tells us that -it was a current proverb in the dominions of the Great Mogul, "If the -king saith at noonday, 'It is night,' you are to say, 'Behold the moon -and stars!'" The Egyptians say, "When the monkey reigns dance before -him." The philosopher desisted from controversy with the Emperor -Hadrian, confessing himself unable to cope in argument with the master -of thirty legions. - - =There's nae gude in speaking ill o' the laird within his ain - bounds.=--_Scotch._ - -On this principle Baillie Nicol Jarvie thinks it well, when passing -the Fairies' Hill, to call them, as others do, men of peace, meaning -thereby to conciliate their good-will. "Speak not ill of a great -enemy," says Selden, "but rather give him good words, that he may use -you the better if you chance to fall into his hands. The Spaniard -did this when he was dying. His confessor told him (to work him to -repentance) how the devil tormented the wicked that went to hell. The -Spaniard replying, called the devil 'my lord.' 'I hope my lord the -devil is not so cruel.' His confessor reproved him. 'Excuse me,' said -the don, 'for calling him so. I know not into what hands I may fall; -and if I happen into his, I hope he will use me the better for giving -him good words.'" - - =It is good to have friends everywhere.= - - =It's gude to hae friends baith in heaven and hell.=--_Scotch._ - -Brantôme relates that Robert de la Mark had a painting executed, in -which were represented St. Margaret and the devil, with himself on his -knees before them, a candle in each hand, and a scroll issuing from -his mouth, containing these words: "If God will not aid me, the devil -surely will not fail me." This is quite in the spirit of Virgil's line, -"If I cannot bend the celestials to my purpose I will move hell."[508] -Others besides De la Mark have thought it prudent "To offer a candle -to God and another to the devil" (French);[509] or, "A candle to St. -Michael and one to his devil" (French),[510] lest the time might come -when the devil under the archangel's feet should get the upper hand. -Upon the same principle a discreet person in the early Christian times -took care never to pass a prostrate statue of Jupiter without saluting -it. - -=One must sometimes hold a candle to the devil.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[466] Fronti nulla fides. Schein betrugt. - -[467] "Maxims of an Old Stager," by Judge Halliburton. - -[468] Ogni lucciola non è fuoco. - -[469] Adó pensas que hay tocinos, no hay estacas. - -[470] Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. - -[471] Debajo de una mala capa hay un buen bebedor. - -[472] No lo quiero, no lo quiero, mas echad lo en mi capilla. - -[473] Chi biasima vuol comprare. - -[474] Altissima flumina minimo sono labuntur. - -[475] Il n'y a pire eau que l'eau qui dort. - -[476] Le feu le plus couvert est le plus ardent. - -[477] Sotto la bianca cenere sta la brace ardente. - -[478] "Friends in Council." - -[479] Non si tosto si fa un tempio a Dio, che il diavolo ci fabbrica -una cappella appresso. - -[480] Le diable chante la grande messe. - -[481] Detras de la cruz esta el diablo. - -[482] Por las haldas del vicario sube el diablo al campanario. - -[483] O über die schlaue Sunde, die einen Engel vor jeden Teufel stellt! - -[484] Couvrir son diable du plus bel ange. - -[485] Le renard prêche aux poules. - -[486] Quand le diable dit ses patenôtres, il vent te tromper. - -[487] Ante la puerta del rezador nunca eches tu trigo al sol. - -[488] Palabras de santo, y uñas de gato. - -[489] Buen amigo es el gato, sino que rascuña. - -[490] Muchos besan manos que quierian ver cortadas. - -[491] Parece que no enturbia el agua. - -[492] Rien ne ressemble plus à un honnête homme qu'un fripon. - -[493] Non son tutti santi quelli che vanno in chiesa. - -[494] Non tutti chi vanno in chiesa fanno orazione. - -[495] Ne sont pas tous chasseurs qui sonnent du cor. - -[496] Non son soldados todos los que van á la guerra. - -[497] Zij zijn niet allen gelijk die met den keizer rijden. - -[498] - - Ægrotat dæmon, monachus tunc esse volebat; - Dæmon convaluit, dæmon ut ante fuit. - -[499] Tutti i rei divengono predicatori quando stanno sotto la forca. - -[500] Quando el corsario promete misas y cera, con mal anda la galera. - -[501] Claudius accusat mœchos. - -[502] Il frate predicava che non si dovesse robbare, e egli aveva -l'occa nel scapulario. - -[503] Haz lo que dice el frayle, y no lo que hace. - -[504] Homo bilinguis. - -[505] Porter un habit de deux paroisses. - -[506] Duabus sellis sedere. - -[507] Hij huilt met de wolven waarmede hij en het bosch is, en blaat -met de schapen in het veld. - -[508] Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. - -[509] Donner une chandelle à Dieu, et une au diable. - -[510] Donner une chandelle à Saint Michel, et une à son diable. - - - - -OPPORTUNITY. - - - =What may be done at any time will be done at no time.= - -"By the street of By-and-by one arrives at the house of Never" -(Spanish).[511] - - =Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.= - -"One to-day is worth ten to-morrows" (German).[512] "To-day must borrow -nothing of to-morrow" (German).[513] "When God says to-day, the devil -says to-morrow" (German).[514] Talleyrand used to reverse these maxims: -by never doing to-day what he could put off till to-morrow he avoided -committing himself prematurely. - - =Strike while the iron is hot.= - -This proverb is cosmopolitan; but - - =Make hay while the sun shines= - -is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have had its -birth only under such variable skies as ours. - - =Take the ball at the hop.= - - =Take time while time is, for time will away.= - - =Time and tide wait for no man.= - -"God keep you from 'It is too late'" (Spanish).[515] "A little too -late, much too late" (Dutch).[516] "Stay but a while, you lose a mile" -(Dutch).[517] - - =After a delay comes a let.= - - =Delays are dangerous.= - -Especially in affairs of love and marriage. Therefore, "When thy -daughter's chance comes, wait not her father's coming from the market" -(Spanish).[518] Close with the offer on the spot. "When the fool has -made up his mind the market has gone by" (Spanish).[519] - - =He that will not when he may, - When he will he shall have nay.= - -"Some refuse roast meat, and afterwards long for the smoke of it" -(Italian).[520] - - =The nearer the church, the farther from God.= - -"Next to the minster, last to mass" (French).[521] "The nearer to -Rome, the worse Christian" (Dutch).[522] The buyer of many books will -probably read few of them, and somebody has said that he never was -afraid of engaging in a controversy with the owner of a large library. -Many a Londoner would never see half its lions but for the necessity of -showing them to country cousins. - - =The shoemaker's wife goes worst shod.= - -Where the best wine is made the worst is commonly drunk. Better fish is -to be had in Billingsgate than on the seacoast. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[511] Por la calle de despues se va á la casa de nunca. - -[512] Ein Heute ist besser als zehn Morgen. - -[513] Heute muss dem Morgen nichts borgen. - -[514] Wenn Gott sagt: Heute, sagt der Teufel: Morgen. - -[515] Guarde te Dios de hecho es. - -[516] Een wenig te laat, veel te laat. - -[517] Sta maar een wijl, gij verliest een mijl. - -[518] Quando á tu hija le viniere su hado, no aguardes que vienga su -padre del mercado. - -[519] Quando el necio es acordado, el mercado es ya pasado. - -[520] Tal lascia l'arrosto, chi poi ne brama il fumo. Qui refuse, muse. - -[521] Près du monstier, à messe le dernier. - -[522] Hoe digter bij Rom, hoe slechter Christ. - - - - -UNCERTAINTY OF THE FUTURE. HOPE. - - - =Man proposes, God disposes.=[523] - - "There's a divinity that shapes men's ends, - Rough hew them how they will." - - =He that reckons without his host must reckon again.= - - =Don't reckon your chickens before they are hatched.= - -Some of the eggs may be addled. Remember the story of Alnaschar. - - =Sune enough to cry "chick" when it's out o' the shell.=--_Scotch._ - - =Gut nae fish till ye get them.=--_Scotch._ - -"Cry no herring till you have it in the net" (Dutch).[524] "First catch -your hare," says Mrs. Glasse, and then you may settle how you will have -it cooked. The Greeks and Romans thought it not wise "To sing triumph -before the victory."[525] It is a rash bargain "To sell the bird on the -bough" (Italian);[526] or "The bearskin before you have caught the -bear" (Italian),[527] as Æsop has demonstrated. Finally, "Unlaid eggs -are uncertain chickens" (German).[528] - - =Praise a fair day at night.= - - =It is not good praising a ford till a man be over.= - - =Don't halloo till you are out of the wood.= - -"Don't cry 'Hey!' till you are over the ditch" (German).[529] "Look -to the end" (Latin).[530] "No man can with certainty be called happy -before his death," as the Grecian sage told Crœsus. "Call me not olive -till you see me gathered" (Spanish)."[531] - - =To build castles in the air.= - -To let imagination beguile us with visionary prospects. The metaphor -is intelligible to everybody, but that in the French equivalent, -"To build castles in Spain,"[532] requires explanation. The Abbé -Morellet ascribes the origin of this phrase to the general belief -in the boundless wealth of Spain after she had become mistress of -the mines of Mexico and Peru. This is plausible but wrong, for the -"Roman de la Rose," which was published long before the discovery -of America, contains this line, _Lors feras chasteaulx en Espagne._ -M. Quitard says that the proverb dates from the latter part of the -eleventh century, when Henri de Bourgogne crossed the Pyrenees at the -head of a great number of knights to win glory and plunder from the -Infidels, and received from Alfonso, king of Castile, in reward for -his services, the hand of that sovereign's daughter, Theresa, and the -county of Lusitania, which, under his son Alfonso Henriquez, became -the kingdom of Portugal. The success of these illustrious adventurers -excited the emulation of the warlike French nobles, and set every man -dreaming of fiefs to be won, and castles to be built in Spain. Similar -feelings had been awakened some years before by the conquest of England -by William of Normandy, and then the French talked proverbially of -"Building castles in Albany,"[533] that is, in Albion. It is worthy of -remark that previously to the eleventh century there were hardly any -castles built in Christian Spain, or by the Saxons in England. The new -adventurers had to build for themselves. - - =Don't tell the devil too much of your mind.= - -Be not too forward to proclaim your intentions. "Tell your business, -and leave the devil alone to do it for you" (Italian).[534] "A wise -man," Selden tells us, "should never resolve upon anything--at least, -never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot arrive at -that he is ashamed. How many things did the king resolve, in his -declaration concerning Scotland, never to do, and yet did them all! -A man must do according to accidents and emergencies. Never tell -your resolution beforehand, but when the cast is thrown play it as -well as you can to win the game you are at. 'Tis but folly to study -how to play size ace when you know not whether you shall throw it or -no." "Muddy though it be, say not, 'Of this water I will not drink'" -(Spanish).[535] "There is no use in saying, 'Such a way I will not go, -or such water I will not drink'" (Italian).[536] - - =There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.= - -"Between the hand and the mouth the soup is often spilt" (French).[537] -"Wine poured out is not swallowed" (French).[538] These three proverbs -are derived from the same Greek original, the English one being -nearest to it in form. A king of Samos tasked his slaves unmercifully -in laying out a vineyard, and one of them, exasperated by this ill -usage, prophesied that his master would never drink of the wine of that -vineyard. Eager to confute this prediction, the king took the first -grapes produced by his vines, pressed them into a cup in the slave's -presence, and derided him as a false prophet. The slave replied, "Many -things happen between the cup and the lip;" and these words became a -proverb, for just then a cry was raised that a wild boar had broken -into the vineyard, and the king, setting down the untested cup, went to -meet the beast, and was killed in the encounter. - - =God send you readier meat than running hares.= - - =A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.= - - =Better a wren in the hand than a crane in the air.=--_Irish_ and - _French_.[539] - -Cranes were in much request for the table down to the end of the -fourteenth century, if not later. "Better a leveret in the kitchen than -a wild boar in the forest" (Livonian). "Better is an egg to-day than a -pullet to-morrow" (Italian).[540] "One here-it-is is better than two -you-shall-have-it's" (French).[541] - - =Possession is nine points of the law.= - -And there are only ten of them in all. Others reckon possession -as eleven points, the whole number being twelve. "Him that is in -possession God helps" (Italian).[542] "Possession is as good as title" -(French).[543] - - =I'll not change a cottage in possession for a kingdom in reversion.= - - =Better haud by a hair nor draw by a tether.=--_Scotch._ - - =He that waits for dead men's shoes may long go barefoot.= - - =He gaes lang barefoot that wears dead men's shoon.=--_Scotch._ - -"He hauls at a long rope who desires another's death" (French).[544] -"He who waits for another's trencher eats a cold meal" (Catalan).[545] - - =Live, horse, and you'll get grass.=[546] - -"Die not, O mine ass, for the spring is coming, and with it clover" -(Turkish). Unfortunately, "For the hungry, _wait_ is a hard word" -(German);[547] and - - =While the grass grows the steed starves.= - - =The old horse may die waiting for new grass.= - - - =Hope holds up the head.= - - =Hope is the bread of the unhappy.= - - =Were it not for hope the heart would break.= - - =He that lives on hope has a slim diet.= - -Aubrey relates that Lord Bacon, being in York House garden, looking on -fishers as they were throwing their net, asked them what they would -take for their draught. They answered so much. His lordship would offer -them only so much. They drew up their net, and in it were only two or -three little fishes. His lordship then told them it had been better for -them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped to have had a -better draught; but, said his lordship,-- - - ="Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper."= - -"Hope and expectation are a fool's income" (Danish).[548] - - =Hopes deferred hang the heart on tenter hooks.= - -"He gives twice who gives quickly" (Latin);[549] and "A prompt refusal -has in part the grace of a favour granted" (Latin).[550] - - =All is not at hand that helps.= - -We cannot foresee whence help may come to us, nor always trace back to -their sources the advantages we actually enjoy. "Water comes to the -mill from afar" (Portuguese).[551] On the other hand, "Far water does -not put out near fire" (Italian);[552] and "Better is a near neighbour -than a distant cousin" (Italian).[553] "Friends living far away are no -friends" (Greek).[554] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[523] In French, L'homme propose, Dieu dispose; in German, Man denkt's, -Gott lenkt's. The Spanish form is a little different: Los dichos en -nos, los hechos en Dios. - -[524] Roep geen haring eer hij in't net is. - -[525] Ante victoriam canere triumphum. - -[526] Vender l'uccello in sù la frasca. - -[527] Non vender la pelle dell' orso prima di pigliarlo. - -[528] Ungelegte Eier sind ungewisse Hünnlein. - -[529] Rufe nicht "Juch!" bis du über den Graben bist. - -[530] Respice finem. - -[531] No me digas oliva hasta que me veas cogida. - -[532] Faire des châteaux en Espagne. - -[533] Faire des chasteaulx en Albanie. - -[534] Di il fatto tuo, e lascia far al diavolo. - -[535] Por turbia que esté, no digas desta agua no bebere. - -[536] Non giova a dire per tal via non passerò, ni di tal acqua beverò. - -[537] De la main à la bouche se perd souvent la soupe. - -[538] Vin versé n'est pas avalé. - -[539] Moineau en main vaut mieux que grue qui vole. - -[540] E meglio aver oggi un uovo che domani una gallina. - -[541] Mieux vaut un tenez que deux vous l'aurez. - -[542] A chi è in tenuta, Dio gli aiuta. - -[543] Possession vaut titre. - -[544] A longue corde tire, qui d'autrui mort désire. - -[545] Qui escudella d'altri espera, freda la menja. - -[546] In Italian, Caval non morire, che erba da venire. - -[547] Dem Hungrigen ist "Harr" ein hart Wort. - -[548] Haabe og vente er Giekerente. - -[549] Bis dat, qui cito dat. - -[550] Pars est beneficii quod petitur si cito neges.--_Publius Syrus._ - -[551] De lomge vem agoa a o moinho. - -[552] Acqua lontana non spegne il fuoco vicino. - -[553] Meglio un prossimo vicino che un lontano cugino. - -[554] Τηλου ναιοντες φιλοι ουκ εισι φιλοι. - - - - -EXPERIENCE. - - - =Bought wit is best.= - - =Wit once bought is worth twice taught.= - - =Hang a dog on a crabtree, and he'll never love verjuice.= - - =A burnt child dreads the fire.= - -Fear is so imaginative that it starts even at the ghost of a -remembered danger. "A scalded dog dreads cold water" (French, Italian, -Spanish).[555] "A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid -of its shadow" (Italian).[556] "Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard -alarms" (Italian).[557] "One who has been bitten by a serpent is afraid -of a rope" (Hebrew). "The man who has been beaten with a firebrand runs -away at the sight of a firefly" (Cingalese). "He that has been wrecked -shudders even at still water" (Ovid).[558] - - =Experience is the mistress of fools.= - -She keeps a dear school, says Poor Richard; but fools will learn in no -other, and scarce in that. "An ass does not stumble twice over the -same stone" (French).[559] "Unfairly does he blame Neptune who suffers -shipwreck a second time" (Publius Syrus).[560] - - =He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the - rock.=--_Cornish._ - - =Better learn frae your neebor's scathe than frae your ain.=--_Scotch._ - -Wise men learn by others' harms, fools by their own, like Epimetheus, -the Greek personification of after-wit.[561] "Happy he who is made wary -by others' perils" (Latin).[562] - - =Old birds are not to be caught with chaff.= - -"Old crows are hard to catch" (German).[563] "New nets don't catch old -birds" (Italian).[564] - - =I'm ower auld a cat to draw a strae [straw] afore my nose.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, I am not to be gulled. A kitten will jump at a straw drawn -before her, but a cat that knows the world is not to be fooled in that -way. - - =Don't tell new lies to old rogues.= - - =He that cheats me ance, shame fa' him; if he cheats me twice, - shame fa' me.=--_Scotch._ - - =It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.= - -The French have a humorous equivalent for this proverb, growing out of -the following story:--A young rustic told his priest at confession that -he had broken down a neighbour's hedge to get at a blackbird's nest. -The priest asked if he had taken away the young birds. "No," said he, -"they were hardly grown enough. I will let them alone until Saturday -evening." No more was said on the subject, but when Saturday evening -came, the young fellow found the nest empty, and readily guessed who it -was that had forestalled him. The next time he went to confession he -had to tell something in which a young girl was partly concerned. "Oh!" -said his ghostly father; "how old is she?" "Seventeen." "Good-looking?" -"The prettiest girl in the village." "What is her name? Where does -she live?" the confessor hastily inquired; and then he got for answer -the phrase which has passed into a proverb, "À d'autres, dénicheur de -merles!" which may be paraphrased, "Try that upon somebody else, Mr. -filcher of blackbirds." - - =When an old dog barks look out.= - -"An old dog does not bark for nothing" (Italian).[565] "There is no -hunting but with old hounds" (French).[566] - - =Live and learn.= - - =The langer we live the mair ferlies [wonders] we see.=--_Scotch._ - - =Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.= - -"Wind in the face makes a man wise" (French).[567] - - =A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner.= - - =It is hard to halt before a cripple.= - -It is hard to counterfeit lameness successfully in presence of a -real cripple. "He who is of the craft can discourse about it." -(Italian).[568] "Don't talk Latin before clerks" (French),[569] or -"Arabic in the Moor's house" (Spanish).[570] - - =The proof of the pudding is in the eating.= - -"Do not judge of the ship while it is on the stocks" (Italian).[571] - - =War's sweet to them that never tried it.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[555] Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide. - -[556] Il can battuto dal bastone, ha paura dell' ombra. - -[557] Chi della serpe è punto, ha paura della lucertola. - -[558] Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas. - -[559] Un âne ne trébuche pas deux fois sur la même pierre. - -[560] Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit. - -[561] Ὁϛ ἐπεί κακὸν ἒχε νόησε. - -[562] Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. - -[563] Alte Krähen sind schwer zu fangen. - -[564] Nuova rete non piglia uccello vecchio. - -[565] Cane vecchio non baia indarno. - -[566] Il n'est chasse que de vieux chiens. - -[567] Vent au visage rend un homme sage. - -[568] Chi è dell'arte, può ragionar della. - -[569] Il ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs. - -[570] In casa del moro no hablar algarabia. - -[571] Non giudicar la nave stando in terra. - - - - -CHOICE. DILEMMA. COMPARISON. - - - =Pick and choose, and take the worst.= - - =The lass that has mony wooers aft wales [chooses] the warst.=--_Scotch._ - - =Refuse a wife with one fault, and take one with two.=--_Welsh._ - -"He that has a choice has trouble" (Dutch).[572] "He that chooses takes -the worst" (French).[573] - - =Of two evils choose the least.= - - =Where bad is the best, naught must be the choice.= - -A traveller in America, inquiring his way, was told there were two -roads, one long, and the other short, and that it mattered not which he -took. Surprised at such a direction, he asked, "Can there be a doubt -about the choice between the long and the short?" and the answer was, -"Why, no matter which of the two you take, you will not have gone far -in it before you will wish from the bottom of your heart that you had -taken t'other." - - ="There's ne'er a best among them," as the fellow said of the fox cubs.= - - =As good eat the devil as the broth he's boiled in.= - - =Out of the fryingpan into the fire.= - -To escape from one evil and incur another as bad or worse is an idea -expressed in many proverbial metaphors; _e.g._, "To come out of the -rain under the spout" (German).[574] "Flying from the bull, I fell into -the river" (Spanish).[575] "To break the constable's head and take -refuge with the sheriff" (Spanish).[576] "To shun Charybdis and strike -upon Scylla" is a well-known phrase, which almost everybody supposes -to have been current among the ancients. It is not to be found, -however, in any classical author, but appears for the first time in the -Alexandriad of Philip Gaultier, a medieval Latin poet. In his fifth -book he thus apostrophises Darius when flying from Alexander:-- - - "Nescis, heu! perdite, nescis - Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; - Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim." - - =Go forward, and fall; go backward, and mar all.= - -"A precipice ahead; wolves behind" (Latin).[577] "To be between the -hammer and the anvil" (French).[578] - - =You may go farther and fare worse.= - - =To be between the devil and the deep sea.= - - =The one-eyed is a king in the land of the blind.= - - "A substitute shines brightly as a king - Until a king be by." - -"Where there are no dogs the fox is a king" (Italian).[579] - - =They that be in hell think there is no other heaven.= - - - =It is good to have two strings to one's bow.= - - =It is good riding at two anchors.= - - =He is no fox that hath but one hole.= - - =The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.= (Latin)[580] - - =Do not put all your eggs in one basket=; - -nor "too many of them under one hen" (Dutch).[581] "Hang not all upon -one nail" (German),[582] nor risk your whole fortune upon one venture. - - =Comparisons are odious.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[572] Die keur heeft, heeft angst. - -[573] Qui choisit prend le pire. - -[574] Aus dem hegen unter die Traufe kommen. - -[575] Huyendo del tore, cayó en el arroyo. - -[576] Descalabrar el alguacil, y accogerse al corregidor. - -[577] A fronte præcipitium, a tergo lupi. - -[578] Être entre le marteau et l'enclume. - -[579] Dove non sono i cani, la volpe è re. - -[580] Mus uni non fidit antro.--_Plautus._ - -[581] Man moet niet te viel eijeren onder eene hen leggen. - -[582] Henke nicht alles auf einen Nagel. - - - - -SHIFTS. CONTRIVANCES. STRAINED USES. - - - =A bad shift is better than none.= - - =Better sup wi' a cutty nor want a spune.=--_Scotch._ - -A cutty is a spoon with a stumpy handle or none at all. It is not a -very convenient implement, but it will serve at a pinch. - - =A bad bush is better than the open field.= - - =A wee bush is better nor nae bield.=--_Scotch._ - -Bield, shelter. A man's present occupation may not be lucrative, or -his connections as serviceable as he could wish, but he should not -therefore quit them until he has better. - - =Half a loaf is better than no bread.= - - =I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.= - -A shaft is an arrow for the longbow, a bolt is for the crossbow. - - =If I canna do it by might I'll do it by slight.=--_Scotch._ - -"It's best no to be rash," said Edie Ochiltree-- - - =Sticking disna gang by strength, but by the guiding o' the - gully.=--_Scotch._ - -A gully is a butcher's knife. There is a knack even in slaughtering a -pig. - - =There goes reason to the roasting of eggs.= - - =Many ways to kill a dog besides hanging him.= - -A story told by the African traveller, Richardson, supplies an apt -illustration of this proverb. An Arab woman preferred another man to -her husband, and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed. Her -lord, instead of flying into a passion and killing her on the spot, -thought a moment, and said, "I will consent to divorce you if you -will promise me one thing." "What is that?" the wife eagerly asked. -"You must _looloo_ to me only on your wedding day." This _looloo_ is -a peculiar cry with which it is customary for brides to salute any -handsome passer-by. The woman gave the promise required, the divorce -took place, and the marriage followed. On the day of the ceremony the -ex-husband passed the camel on which the bride rode, and gave her the -usual salute by discharging his firelock, in return for which she -loolooed to him according to promise. The new bridegroom, enraged at -this marked preference--for he noticed that she had not greeted any -one else--and suspecting that he was duped, instantly fell upon the -bride and slew her. He had no sooner done so than her brothers came -up and shot him dead, so that the first husband found himself amply -avenged without having endangered himself in the slightest degree. -"Contrivance is better than force" (French).[583] Lysander of Sparta -was reproached for relying too little on open valour in war, and -too much on ruses not always worthy of a descendant of Hercules. He -replied, in allusion to the skin of the Nemæan beast worn by his great -ancestor, "Where the lion's skin comes short we must eke it out with -the fox's." - - =It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog=; _or_, - =It is easy to find a stone to throw at a dog.= - -It is easy for the strong to find an excuse for maltreating the weak. -"On a little pretext the wolf seizes the sheep" (French),[584] or the -lamb, as the fable shows. "If you want to flog your dog say he ate the -poker" (Spanish).[585] "If a man wants to thrash his wife, let him ask -her for drink in the sunshine" (Spanish),[586] for then what can be -easier for him than to pick a quarrel with her about the motes in the -clearest water? - - =A handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with.= - -Everything to its proper use. In Italy they say, "With the Gospel -sometimes one becomes a heretic." Disraeli, and after him Dean Trench, -have given to this proverb an erroneous interpretation, founded on -a false reading. Their version of it is "Coll' Evangelo si diventa -heretico." Here there is no qualifying "sometimes;" the proposition is -put absolutely, and the two English writers consider it to be a popular -"confession that the maintenance of the Romish system and the study -of Holy Scripture cannot go together." It would certainly be "not a -little remarkable," if it were true, "that such a confession should -have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation;" but -the fact is that nothing more is meant by the proverb than what the -Inquisition itself might sanction. It is only a pointed way of saying -that anything, however good, is liable to be used mischievously.[587] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[583] Mieux vaut engin que force. - -[584] À petite achoison le loup prend le mouton. - -[585] Para azotar el perro, que se come el hierro. - -[586] Quien quiere dar palos á su muger, pidele al sol á bever. - -[587] "Con l'Evangelo talvolta si diventa eretico" is the original, as -given by Toriano in his folio collection of Italian proverbs, London, -1666. In Giusti's "Raccolta," &c., Firenza, 1853, we read, "Col Vangelo -si può diventar eretici," to which the editor appends this gloss, "Ogni -cosa può torcersi a male." - - - - -ADVICE. - - - =He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.= - -"He who will not go to heaven needs no preaching" (German).[588] "He -that will not hear must feel" (German).[589] - - =Two heads are better than one.= - -"Four eyes see more than two" (Spanish);[590] and "More know the pope -and a peasant than the pope alone,"[591] as they say in Venice. - - =Come na to the council unca'd.=--_Scotch._ - -"Never give advice unasked" (German).[592] - - =Every one thinks himself able to advise another.= - -"Nothing is given so freely as advice" (French).[593] "Of judgment -every one has a stock for sale" (Italian).[594] - - =He that kisseth his wife in the market-place shall have people enough - to teach him.= - -"He who builds according to every man's advice will have a crooked -house" (Danish).[595] - - =He that speers a' opinions comes ill speed.=--_Scotch._ - -"If you want to get into the bog ask five fools the way to the wood" -(Livonian). "Take help of many, counsel of few" (Danish).[596] - - =A fool may put something in a wise man's head.= - -It was a saying of Cato the elder, that wise men learnt more by fools -than fools by wise men. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[588] Wer nicht in den Himmel will, braucht keine Predigt. - -[589] Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen. - -[590] Mas veen quatro ojos que dos. - -[591] Sa più il papa e un contadino che il papa solo. - -[592] Rathe Niemand ungebeten. - -[593] Rien ne se donne aussi libéralement que les conseils. - -[594] Del judizio ognun ne vende. - -[595] Hvo som bygger efter hver Mands Raad, hans Huser kommer kroget at -staae. - -[596] Tag Mange til Hielp og Faa til Rad. - - - - -DETRACTION. CALUMNY. COMMON FAME. GOOD REPUTE. - - - =The smoke follows the fairest.= - -The original of this is in Aristophanes: it means that - - "Envy doth merit like its shade pursue." - -"The best bearing trees are the most beaten" (Italian).[597] "It -is only at the tree laden with fruit that people throw stones" -(French).[598] "Towers," say the Chinese, "are measured by their -shadows, and great men by their calumniators." An old French proverb -compares detraction to dogs that bark only at the full moon, and never -heed her in the quarter. "If the fool has a hump," say the Livonians, -"no one notices it; if the wise man has a pimple everybody talks about -it." - - =Slander leaves a slur.= - -"A blow of a fryingpan smuts, if it does not hurt" (Spanish).[599] The -Arabs say, "Take a bit of mud, dab it against the wall: if it does not -stick it will leave its mark;" and we have a similar proverb derived -from the Latin:[600]-- - - =Throw much dirt, and some will stick.= - -Fortunately - - =When the dirt's dry it will rub out.= - - =Ill-will never spoke well.= - -The evidence of a prejudiced witness is to be distrusted. "He -that is an enemy to the bride does not speak well of the wedding" -(Spanish);[601] and "A runaway monk never spoke in praise of his -monastery" (Italian).[602] - - =Give a dog an ill name and hang him.= - - ="I'll not beat thee, not abuse thee," said the Quaker to his dog; - "but I'll give thee an ill name."=--_Irish._ - - =He that hath an ill name is half hanged.= - -A French proverb declares, with a still bolder figure, that "Report -hangs the man."[603] The Spaniards say, "Whoso wants to kill his dog -has but to charge him with madness."[604] - - =All are not thieves that dogs bark at.= - -The innocent are sometimes cried down. "An honest man is not the worse -because a dog barks at him" (Danish).[605] "What cares lofty Diana for -the barking dog?" (Latin).[606] - - =Common fame is seldom to blame.= - - =What everybody says must be true.= - - =It never smokes but there's a fire.= - -"There's never a cry of 'Wolf!' but the wolf is in the district" -(Italian).[607] "There's never much talk of a thing but there's some -truth in it" (Italian).[608] This is the sense in which our droll -English saying is applied:-- - - ="There was a thing in it!" quoth the fellow when he drank the - dishclout.= - -To accept the last half-dozen of proverbs too absolutely would often -lead us to uncharitable conclusions; we must, therefore, temper our -belief in these maxims by means of their opposites, such as this:-- - - =Common fame is a common liar.= - -"Hearsay is half lies" (German, Italian).[609] "Hear the other side, -and believe little" (Italian).[610] - - =A tale never loses in the telling.= - -Witness George Colman's story of the Three Black Crows. - - =The devil is not so black as he is painted.= - -Nor is the lion so fierce (Spanish).[611] "Report makes the wolf bigger -than he is" (German).[612] - - =It is a sin to belie the devil.= - - =Give the devil his due.= - - =If one's name be up he may lie in bed.= - -"Get a good name and go to sleep" (Spanish).[613] So do many. Hence it -is often better to intrust the execution of a work to be done to an -obscure man than to one whose reputation is established. - - =One man may better steal a horse than another look over the - hedge.= - -"A good name covers theft" (Spanish).[614] "The honest man enjoys the -theft" (Spanish).[615] - - =A gude name is sooner tint [lost] than won.=--_Scotch._ - -"Once in folks' mouths, hardly ever well out of them again" -(German).[616] "Good repute is like the cypress: once cut, it never -puts forth leaf again" (Italian).[617] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[597] I megliori alberi sono i più battuti. - -[598] On ne jette des pierres qu'à l'arbre chargé de fruits. - -[599] El golpe de la sarten, aunque no duele, tizna. - -[600] Calumniare audacter, aliquid adhærebit. - -[601] El que es enemigo de la novia no dice bien de la boda. - -[602] Monaco vagabondo non disse mai lode del suo monastero. - -[603] Le bruit pend l'homme. - -[604] Quien á su perro quiere matas, rabia le ha de levantar. - -[605] Ærlig Mand er ei disværre, at en Hund göer ad ham. - -[606] Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem? - -[607] E' non si grida mai al lupo, che non sia in paese. - -[608] Non si dice mai tanto una cosa che non sia qualche cosa. - -[609] Hörensagen ist halb gelogen. Aver sentito dire è mezza buggia. - -[610] Odi l'altra parte, e credi poco. - -[611] No es tan bravo el leon como le pintan. - -[612] Geschrei macht den Wolf grösser als er ist. - -[613] Cobra buena fama, y échate á dormir. - -[614] Buena fama hurto encubre. - -[615] El buen hombre goza el hurto. - -[616] Einmal in der Leute Mund, kommt man übel wieder heraus. - -[617] La buona fama è come il cipresso: una volta tagliato non -riverdisce più. - - - - -TRUTH. FALSEHOOD. HONESTY. - - - =A lie has no legs.= - -A proverb of eastern origin, meaning that a lie has no stability: -wrestle with it, and down it goes. The Italians and Spaniards say, -"A lie has short legs;"[618] and in the same sense "A liar is sooner -caught than a cripple."[619] He trips up his own heels. - - =Liars should have good memories.= - -"Memory in a liar is no more than needs," says Fuller. "For, first, -lies are hard to be remembered, because many, whereas truth is but -one: secondly, because a lie cursorily told takes little footing and -settled fatness in the teller's memory, but prints itself deeper in the -hearer's, who takes the greater notice because of the improbability and -deformity thereof; and one will remember the sight of a monster longer -than the sight of an handsome body. Hence come sit to pass that when -the liar hath forgotten himself his auditors put him in mind of the -lie, and take him therein." - - =Fair fall truth and daylight.= - - =Speak truth and shame the devil.= - - =Truth and honesty keep the crown o' the causey.=--_Scotch._ - -They march boldly along the middle of the roadway, which was formerly -the place of honour for pedestrians in Scottish towns. "Truth seeks no -corners" (Latin).[620] - - =Truth may be blamed, but shall ne'er be shamed.= - -"It is mighty, and will prevail" (Latin).[621] "It is God's -daughter" (Spanish).[622] "Truth and oil always come to the surface" -(Spanish).[623] "It takes a good many shovelfuls of earth to bury the -truth" (German).[624] - - =Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that use it die beggars.= - -"He that speaks truth must have one foot in the stirrup," say the -Turks, who are a people by no means addicted to lying. "People praise -truth, but invite lying to be their guest" (Lettish). "My gossips -dislike me because I tell them the truth" (Spanish).[625] - - =Truth has a good face, but ragged clothes.= - - =He that follows truth too near the heels will have dirt kicked in his - face.= - - -Is it Charles Lamb who says that a rogue is a fool with a -circumbendibus? - - =An honest man's word is as good as his bond.= - -And better than what is called "Connaught security: three in a bond and -a book oath." - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[618] La mentira tiene cortas las piernas. Le bugie hanno corte le -gambe. - -[619] Si arriva più presto un bugiardo che un zoppo. - -[620] Veritas non quærit angulos. - -[621] Magna est veritas et prævalebit. - -[622] La verdad es hija de Dios. - -[623] La verdad, como el olio, siempre anda en somo. - -[624] Zum Begräbniss der Wahrheit gehören viel Schaufeln. - -[625] Mal me quieren mis comadres, porque les digo las verdades. - - - - -SPEECH. SILENCE. - - - =Speech is silvern, silence is golden.= - -"Be silent, or say something that is better than silence" -(German).[626] "Better silence than ill speech" (Swedish).[627] -"Talking comes by nature, silence of understanding" (German).[628] "Who -speaks, sows; who keeps silence, reaps" (Italian).[629] - - =Silence seldom does harm.= - - =Least said, soonest mended.= - -The principle applies still more forcibly to writing. "Words fly, -writing remains" (Latin).[630] A man's spoken words may be unnoticed, -or forgotten, or denied; but what he has put down in black and white is -tangible evidence against him. Therefore "Think much, say little, write -less" (Italian).[631] Give Cardinal Richelieu two lines of any man's -writing and he needed no more to hang him. Fabio Merto, an archbishop -of the seventeenth century, has oddly remarked, "It is nowhere -mentioned in the Gospels that our Lord wrote more than once, and then -it was on the sand, in order that the wind might efface the writing." -"Silence was never written down" (Italian);[632] and "A silent man's -words are not brought into court" (Danish).[633] "Hear, see, and say -nothing, if you wish to live in peace" (Italian).[634] - - =A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.= - -"Let not the tongue say what the head shall pay for" (Spanish).[635] -"The sheep that bleats is strangled by the wolf" (Italian).[636] -"He that knows nothing knows enough if he knows how to be silent" -(Italian).[637] - - =A fool's bolt is soon shot.= - -"A foolish judge passes quick sentence" (French).[638] "He who knows -little soon sings it out" (Spanish).[639] - - =When a fool has spoken he has done all.= - -"It is always the worst wheel that creaks" (French, Italian).[640] The -shallowest persons are the most loquacious. "Were fools silent they -would pass for wise" (Dutch).[641] - - =Silence gives consent.= - -"Silence answers much" (Dutch).[642] - - =A man may hold his tongue in an ill time.= - -"Amyclæ was undone by silence" (Latin).[643] The citizens having been -often frightened with false news of the enemy's coming, made it penal -for any one to report such a thing in future. Hence, when the enemy did -come indeed, they were surprised and taken. There is a time to speak as -well as to be silent. - - =Spare to speak and spare to speed.= - -"If the child does not cry the mother does not understand it" -(Russian). "Him that speaks not, God hears not" (Spanish).[644] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[626] Schweig, oder rede etwas das besser ist denn Schweigen. - -[627] Bättre tyga än illa tala. - -[628] Reden kommt von Natur, Schweigen von Verstunde. - -[629] Chi parla, semina; chi tace, raccoglie. - -[630] Verba volant, scripta manent. - -[631] Pensa molto, parla poco, scrivi meno. - -[632] Il tacere non fu mai scritto. - -[633] Tiende Mands Ord komme ei til Tinge. - -[634] Odi, vedi, e taci, se vuoi viver in pace. - -[635] No diga la lengua por do paque la cabeza. - -[636] Pecora che bela, il lupo la strozza. - -[637] Assai sa, chi non sa, se tacer sa. - -[638] De fol juge brève sentence. - -[639] Quien poco sabe, presto lo reza. - -[640] C'est toujours la plus mauvaise roue qui crie. E la peggior ruota -quella che fa più rumore. - -[641] Zweegen de dwazen zij waren wijs. - -[642] Zwijgen antwoordt veel. - -[643] Amyclas silentium perdidit. - -[644] A quien no habla, no le oye Dios. - - - - -THREATENING. BOASTING. - - - =The greatest barkers bite not sorest.= - - =Great barkers are nae biters.=--_Scotch._ - -Those who threaten most loudly are not the most to be feared. "Timid -dogs bark worse than they bite" (Latin),[645] was a proverb of the -Bactrians, as Quintus Curtius informs us. The Turks say, "The dog -barks, but the caravan passes." "What matters the barking of the dog -that does not bite?" (German);[646] but "Beware of a silent dog and of -still water" (Latin).[647] "The silent dog bites first" (German).[648] -"A fig for our democrats!" Horace Walpole wrote in 1792. "Barking dogs -never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous -action. They said nothing, and did everything. Ours say everything, and -will do nothing." - - =Threatened folk live long.= - -"Longer lives he that is threatened than he that is hanged" -(Italian).[649] "More are threatened than are stabbed" (Spanish).[650] -"Threatened folk, too, eat bread" (Portuguese).[651] "David did not -slay Goliath with words" (Icelandic).[652] "No one dies of threats" -(Dutch).[653] "Not all threateners fight" (Dutch).[654] "Some threaten -who are afraid" (French).[655] "A curse does not knock an eye out -unless the fist go with it" (Danish).[656] "The cat's curse hurts the -mice less than her bite" (Livonian). - - =Lang mint, little dint.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, a blow long aimed or threatened has little force; or, as -the Italians and Spaniards say, "A blow threatened was never well -given."[657] - - =Silence grips the mouse.= - -"A mewing cat was never a good mouser" (Spanish).[658] "He that -threatens warns" (German).[659] "He that threatens wastes his anger" -(Portuguese).[660] "The threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance" -(Spanish).[661] "Threats are arms for the threatened" (Italian).[662] - - =Fleying [frightening] a bird is no the way to grip it.=--_Scotch._ - - =The way to catch a bird is no to fling your bonnet at her.=--_Scotch._ - -"Hares are not caught with beat of drum" (French).[663] - - =Let not your mousetrap smell of blood.= - - =Never show your teeth when you can't bite.= - - =Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.= - - =A boaster and a liar are cousins german.= - -"Believe a boaster as you would a liar" (Italian).[664] "Who is the -greatest liar? He that talks most of himself" (Chinese). - - =The greatest talkers are always the least doers.= - - =Great boast, small roast.= - -"Great vaunters, little doers" (French).[665] "It is not the hen which -cackles most that lays most eggs" (Dutch).[666] "A long tongue betokens -a short hand" (Spanish).[667] - - =Saying gangs cheap.=--_Scotch._ - - =Saying and doing are two things.= - -"From saying to doing is a long stretch" (French).[668] "Words are -female, deeds are male" (Italian).[669] "Words will not do for my aunt, -for she does not trust even deeds" (Spanish).[670] - - =His wind shakes no corn.=--_Scotch._ - - =Harry Chuck ne'er slew a man till he cam nigh him.=--_Scotch._ - -Harry Chuck is understood to have been a vapouring fellow of the -Ancient Pistol order, one of those who would give "A great stab to -a dead Moor" (Spanish).[671] "It is easy to frighten a bull from -the window" (Italian).[672] "Many are brave when the enemy flees" -(Italian).[673] - - =It is well said, but who will bell the cat?=--_Scotch._ - -"The mice consult together how to take the cat, but they do not agree -upon the matter" (Livonian). "Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man -remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of -Bell-the-Cat upon the following remarkable occasion:--When the Scottish -nobility assembled to deliberate on putting the obnoxious favourites -of James III. to death, Lord Grey told them the fable of the mice, who -resolved that one of their number should put a bell round the neck of -the cat, to warn them of its coming; but no one was so hardy as to -attempt it. 'I understand the moral,' said Angus; 'I will bell the -cat.' He bearded the king to purpose by hanging the favourites over the -bridge of Lauder; Cochran, their chief, being elevated higher than the -rest."--(_Note to Marmion._) - - =Self-praise is no commendation.= - - =Self-praise stinks.= - - =Ye live beside ill neebours.=--_Scotch._ - - =Your trumpeter is dead.= - -The last two are taunts addressed to persons who sound their own -praises. - - =A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggen - o't.=--_Scotch._ - -A man does not prove the depth and sincerity of his sentiments by an -ostentatious display of them. - - =Good wine needs no bush.= - - =Gude ale needs nae wisp.=--_Scotch._ - -A bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay or straw hung up at a roadside -house, is a sign that drink is sold within. This custom, which still -lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and -prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among -whom a bunch of ivy, the plant sacred to Bacchus, was appropriately -used as the sign of a wine-shop. They, too, used to say, "Vendible wine -needs no ivy hung up."[674] "Good wine needs no crier" (Spanish).[675] -"It sells itself" (Spanish).[676] "Bosky" is one of the innumerable -euphemisms for "drunk." Probably the phrase, "he is bosky," originally -conveyed an allusion to the symbolical use of the bush, with which all -good fellows were familiar in the olden time. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[645] Apud Bactryanos vulgo usurpabant canem timidum vehementius -latrare quam mordere. - -[646] Was schadet das Hundes Bellen der nicht beisst? - -[647] Cave tibi cane muto et aqua silente. - -[648] Schweigender Hund beisst am ersten. - -[649] Vive più il minacciato che l'impiccato. - -[650] Mas son los amenazados que los acuchillados. - -[651] Tambem os ameaçados comem paō. - -[652] Ekks Davith Goliat med ordum drap. - -[653] Van dreigen sterft men niet. - -[654] Alle dreigers vechten niet. - -[655] Tel menace qui a peur. - -[656] Bande bider ei Öie ud, uden Næven fölger med. - -[657] Schiaffo minacciato, mai ben dato. Bofetón amagado, nunca bien -dado. - -[658] Gato maullador nunca buen caçador. - -[659] Wer droht, warnt. - -[660] Quem ameaça, su ira gasta. - -[661] El amenazador hace perder el lugar de venganza. - -[662] Le minaccie son arme del minacciato. - -[663] On ne prend pas le lèvre au tambour. - -[664] Credi al vantatore come al mentitore. - -[665] Grands vanteurs, petits faiseurs. - -[666] Het hoen, dat het meest kakelt, geeft de meeste eijers niet. - -[667] La lengua luenga es señal de mano corta. - -[668] Du dire au fait il y a grand trait. - -[669] Le parole son femmine, e i fatti son maschi. - -[670] No son palabras para mi tia, que aun de las obras no se fia. - -[671] A moro muerto gran lanzada. - -[672] E facile far paura al toro dalla fenestra. - -[673] Molli son bravi quando l'inimico frigge. - -[674] Vino vendibili suspensa hedera non est opus. - -[675] El vino bueno no ha menester pregonero. - -[676] El buen vino la venta trae consigo. - - - - -SECRETS. - - - =No secrets but between two.= - -"Where could you have heard that?" said a friend to Grattan. "Why, it -is a profound secret." "I heard it," said Grattan, "where secrets are -kept--in the street." Napoleon I. used to say, "Secrets travel fast in -Paris."[677] - - =Three may keep counsel if two be away.= - -We are told in several languages "That the secret of two is God's -secret--the secret of three is all the world's;"[678] and the Spaniards -hold that "What three know every creature knows."[679] The surest plan -is, of course, not to trust to anybody; and this was the plan pursued -by Alva and by Q. Metellus Macedonicus, whose maxim, "If my tunic knew -my secret I would burn it forthwith," has been turned by the French -into a rhyming proverb of their own: "Let the shirt next your skin -not know what's within."[680] The Chinese say, "What is whispered -in the ear is often heard a hundred miles off." Truly "Nothing is so -burdensome as a secret" (French).[681] The Livonians have this humorous -hyperbole, "Confide a secret to a dumb man and it will make him speak." -King Midas's barber scraped a hole in the earth, and, lying down, -poured into it the tremendous secret that oppressed him; but the earth -did not keep it close, for it sprouted up with the growing corn, which -proclaimed with articulate rustlings, "King Midas hath the ears of an -ass." - - =Tom Noddy's secret.= - -Or, "The secret of Polichinelle" (French);[682] that is to say, one -which is known to everybody. This is what the Spaniards call "The -secret of Anchuelos."[683] The town of that name lies in a gorge -between two steep hills, on one of which a shepherd tended his flock, -on the other a shepherdess. This pair kept up an amorous converse by -bawling from hill to hill, but always with many mutual injunctions of -secrecy. - - =Murder will out.= - -"And a man's child cannot be hid," adds Lancelot Gobbo. The English -proverb is used jocosely, though derived from an awful sense of the -fatality, as it were, with which bloody secrets are almost always -brought to light. It seems to us as though the order of nature were -inverted when the perpetrator of a murder escapes detection. This faith -in Nemesis was expressed in the ancient Greek proverb, "The cranes of -Ibycus," of which this is the story. The lyric poet Ibycus was murdered -by robbers on his way to Corinth, and with his last breath committed -the task of avenging him to a flock of cranes, the only living things -in sight besides himself and his murderers. The latter, some time -after, sitting in the theatre at Corinth, saw a flock of cranes -overhead, and one of them said scoffingly, "Lo, there the avengers of -Ibycus!" These words were caught up by some near them, for already -the poet's disappearance had excited alarm. The men being questioned -betrayed themselves, and were led to their doom, and "The cranes of -Ibycus" passed into a proverb. This story may serve to show how - - =Daylight will peep through a small hole.= - -"Eggs are close things," say the Chinese, "but the chicks come out at -last." "A secret fire is discovered by the smoke" (Catalan).[684] - - =To let the cat out of the bag.= - -To betray a secret inadvertently. I cannot tell what is the origin of -this phrase. Can it be that it alludes to the practice of selling cats -for hares? A fraudulent vendor, while pressing a customer "to buy a -cat in a bag," (see p. 61,) might in an unguarded moment let him see -enough to detect the imposition. - - =When rogues fall out honest men come by their own.= - -They peach upon each other. "Thieves quarrel, and thefts are -discovered" (Spanish).[685] "Gossips fall out, and tell each other -truths" (Spanish).[686] "When the cook and the butler fall out we shall -know what is become of the butter" (Dutch). - - =Tell your secret to your servant, and you make him your master=. - -Juvenal notes the policy of the Greek adventurers in Rome to worm out -the secrets of the house, and so make themselves feared. "To whom you -tell your secret you surrender your freedom" (Spanish).[687] "Tell -your friend your secret, and he will set his foot on your throat" -(Spanish).[688] - - =Walls have ears.= - -"Hills see, walls hear" (Spanish).[689] "The forest has ears, the field -has eyes" (German).[690] - - =What soberness conceals drunkenness reveals.= - -"What is in the heart of the sober man is on the tongue of the drunken -man" (Latin).[691] "In wine is truth" (Latin).[692] "Wine wears no -breeches" (Spanish).[693] - - =When wine sinks, words swim.=[694] - - =When the wine is in the wit is out.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[677] Les confidences vont vite à Paris. - -[678] Secret de deux, secret de Dieu; secret de trois, secret de tous. - -[679] Lo que saben tres, sabe toda res. - -[680] Que ta chemise ne sache ta guise. - -[681] Rien ne pèse tant qu'un secret. - -[682] Le secret de Polichinelle. - -[683] El secreto de Anchuelos. - -[684] For secreto, lo fumo lo descovre. - -[685] Pelean los ladrones, y descubriense los hurtos. - -[686] Riñen las comadres, y duense las verdades. - -[687] A quien dices tu puridad, á ese das tu libertad. - -[688] Di á tu amigo tu secreto, y tenerte ha el pie en el pescuezo. - -[689] Montes veen, paredes oyen. - -[690] Der Wald hat Ohren, das Feld hat Augen. - -[691] Quod est in corde sobrii est in ore ebrii. - -[692] In vino veritas. - -[693] El vino anda sin calças. - -[694] This is in Herodotus: Ὄινου κατίοντοϛ ἔπιπλεουσιν ἐπῆ. - - - - -RETRIBUTION. PENAL JUSTICE. - - - =He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned.= - - =The water will ne'er waur the woodie.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, the water will never defraud the gallows of its due. Gonzago, -in _The Tempest_, says of the boatswain, "I have great comfort from -this fellow; methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion -is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! Make the -rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he -be not born to be hanged our case is miserable." - -The Danes say, "He that is to be hanged will never be drowned, unless -the water goes over the gallows."[695] Such punctilious accuracy -in fixing the limits of the proposition considerably enhances its -grim humour. There is a fine touch of ghastly horror in its Dutch -equivalent, "What belongs to the raven does not drown."[696] The -platform on which criminals were executed and gibbeted was called, in -the picturesque language of the middle ages, the "ravenstone." "He -that is to die by the gallows may dance on the river" (Italian).[697] - - "He'll be hang'd yet, - Though every drop of water swear against it, - And gape at wid'st to glut him." - - =Give a thief rope enough and he'll hang himself.= - - =Every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer.= - - =Air day or late day, the tod's [fox's] hide finds aye the flaying - knife.=--_Scotch._ - -In spite of all his cunning the rogue will soon or late come to a bad -end. "Foxes find themselves at last at the furrier's" (French).[698] -"No mad dog runs seven years" (Dutch).[699] - - =Hanging goes by hap.= - -If a man is hanged it is a sign that he was pre-destined to that end. -"The gallows was made for the unlucky" (Spanish).[700] It is not always -a man's fault so much as his misfortune that he dies of a hempen fever. -As Captain Macheath sings,-- - - "Since laws were made for every degree, - To curb vice in others as well as in me, - I wonder we ha'n't better company - Upon Tyburn tree." - -But "Money does not get hanged" (German).[701] It sits on the -judgment-seat, and sends poor rogues to the hulks or to Jack Ketch. As -it was in the days of Diogenes the cynic, so it is now: "Great thieves -hang petty thieves" (French);[702] and, whilst "Petty thieves are -hanged, people take off their hats to great ones" (German).[703] - - =First hang and draw, - Then hear the cause by Lidford law.= - -Ray informs us that "Lidford is a little and poor but ancient -corporation in Devonshire, with very large privileges, where a Court of -Stannaries was formerly kept." The same sort of expeditious justice was -practised in Scotland and in Spain, as testified by proverbs of both -countries. At Peralvillo the Holy Brotherhood used to execute in this -manner robbers taken in the fact, or "red-hand," as the Scotch forcibly -expressed it. Hence the Spanish saying, "Peralvillo justice: after the -man is hanged try him."[704] The Scotch equivalent for this figures -with dramatic effect in that scene of _The Fair Maid of Perth_ where -Black Douglas has just discovered the murder of the Prince of Rothsay, -and exclaims,-- - -"'Away with the murderers! hang them over the battlements!' - -"'But, my lord, some trial may be fitting,' answered Balveny. - -"'To what purpose?' answered Douglas. 'I have taken them red-hand; my -authority will stretch to instant execution. Yet stay: have we not some -Jedwood men in our troop?' - -"'Plenty of Turnbulls, Rutherfords, Ainslies, and so forth,' said -Balveny. - -"'Call me an inquest of these together; they are all good men and true, -save a little shifting for their living. Do you see to the execution -of these felons, while I hold a court in the great hall, and we'll try -whether the jury or the provost-martial shall do their work first: we -will have - - =Jedwood justice--hang in haste, and try at leisure.'"= - - =He that invented the "maiden" first hanselled it.=--_Scotch._ - -This was the Regent Morton, who was the first man beheaded by an -instrument of his own invention, called the "maiden." His enemies -thought it was - - "Sport - To see the engineer hoist by his own petard;" - -and even those who pitied him felt that "no law was juster than that -the artificers of death should perish by their own art."[705] - - =If he has no gear to tine, he has shins to pine.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, if he has not wealth to lose, or means to pay a fine, he must -be clapped in the stocks or in fetters. "He that has no money must pay -with his skin" (German).[706] "Where there is no money there is no -forgiveness of sins" (German).[707] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[695] Han drukner ikke som henge skal, uden Vandet gaaer over Galgen. - -[696] Wat den raven toebehoort verdrinkt niet. - -[697] Chi ha da morir di forca, può ballar sul fiume. - -[698] Enfin les renards se trouvent chez le pelletier. - -[699] Er liep geen dolle hond zeven jaar. - -[700] Para los desdichados se hizo la horca. - -[701] Geld wird nicht gehenkt. - -[702] Les grands voleurs font pendre les petits. - -[703] Kleine Diebe henkt man, vor grossen zieht man den Hut ab. - -[704] La justicia de Peralvillo, que ahorcado el hombre le hace la -perquisa. - -[705] - - Nec lex est justior ulla - Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. - -[706] Wer kein Geld hat, mussmit der Haut bezahlen. - -[707] Wo kein Geld ist, da ist auch keine Vergebung der Sünden. - - - - -WEALTH. POVERTY. PLENTY. WANT. - - - =Happy is the son whose father went to the devil.= - -On the other hand, the Portuguese say, "Alas for the son whose father -goes to heaven!"[708] the presumption being that a man does not go that -way whilst amassing great wealth; for "He that is afraid of the devil -does not grow rich" (Italian).[709] "To do so one has only to turn -one's back on God" (French).[710] Audley, a noted lawyer and usurer -in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., was asked what might be the -value of his newly-obtained office in the Court of Wards. He replied, -"It may be worth some thousands of pounds to him who after his death -would instantly go to heaven; twice as much to him who would go to -purgatory; and nobody knows how much to him who would adventure to go -to hell." Audley's biographer hints that he did adventure that way for -the four hundred thousand pounds he left behind him at his departure. -"The river does not become swollen with clear water" (Italian).[711] -According to a Latin proverb, quoted with approval by St. Jerome, -"A rich man is either a rogue or a rogue's heir."[712] "To be rich -one must have a relation at home with the devil" (Italian).[713] -"Gold goes to the Moor;" _i. e._, to the man without a conscience -(Portuguese).[714] - -"The poets feign," says Bacon, "that when Plutus, which is riches, is -sent from Jupiter, he limps and goes slowly; but when he is sent from -Pluto he runs and is swift of foot; meaning that riches gotten by good -means and just labour pace slowly, but when they come by the death of -others (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), -they come tumbling upon a man. But it might be applied likewise to -Pluto, taking him for the devil; for when riches come from the devil -(as by fraud and oppression and unjust means) they come upon speed. The -ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul." - -"He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent" (Proverbs -xxviii. 22). "Who would be rich in a year gets hanged in half a year" -(Spanish).[715] - - =Plenty makes dainty.=[716] - - =As the sow fills the draught sours.= - - =Hunger is the best sauce.= - -"Hunger makes raw beans sweet" (German). "Hunger is the best cook" -(German). "The full stomach loatheth the honeycomb, but to the hungry -every bitter thing is sweet" (Proverbs). "Brackish water is sweet in a -dry land" (Portuguese).[717] - - =A hungry horse makes a clean manger.= - - =Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings.= - - =A hungry man sees far.= - -"A hungry man discovers more than a hundred lawyers" (Spanish).[718] -Want sharpens industry and invention. "He thinks of everything who -wants bread" (French).[719] "A poor man is all schemes" (Spanish).[720] - - "Lorgitor artium, ingeniique magister - Venter." - -"Poverty and hunger have many learned disciples" (German).[721] -"Poverty is the sixth sense."[722] "It is cunning: it catches even a -fox" (German).[723] - - =Need makes the old wife trot.=[724] - - =Need makes the naked man run.= - - =Need makes the naked quean spin.= - -"Hunger sets the dog a-hunting" (Italian).[725] "Hunger drives the wolf -out of the wood" (Italian).[726] - - =Hunger will break through stone walls.= - -"A hungry dog fears not the stick" (Italian);[727] whereas "The -full-fed sheep is frightened at her own tail" (Spanish).[728] - - =Poverty parteth good fellowship.= - -An old Scotch song says:-- - - "When I hae saxpence under my thumb, - Then I get credit in ilka town; - But when I hae naethin they bid me gang by: - Hech! poverty parts gude company." - - =Poverty is no crime.= - -Some say it is worse. "Poverty is no vice, but it is a sort of leprosy" -(French).[729] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[708] Guay do filho que o pai vai a paraiso. - -[709] Chi ha paura del diavolo non fa roba. - -[710] Il ne faut que tourner le dos à Dieu pour devenir riche. - -[711] Il fiume non s'ingrossa d'acqua chiara. - -[712] Dives aut iniquus aut iniqui hæres. - -[713] Por esser riceo bisogna avere un parente a casa al diavolo. - -[714] Vaise o ouro ao mouro. - -[715] Quien en un año quiere ser rico, al medio le ahorcan. - -[716] Abondance engendre fâcherie. - -[717] Agoa salobra na terra seca he doce. - -[718] Mas descubre un hambriento que cien letrados. - -[719] De tout s'avise à qui pain faut. - -[720] Hombre pobre todo es trazas. - -[721] Armuth und Hunger haben viel gelehrte Jünger. - -[722] Armuth ist der sechste Sinn. - -[723] Armuth ist listig, sie fängt auch einen Fuchs. - -[724] The same in Italian, Bisogna fa trottar la vecchia; and in -French, Besoin fait vieille trotter. - -[725] Fa forame il can per fame. - -[726] La fame caccia il lupo fuor del bosco. - -[727] Can affamato non ha paura del bastone. - -[728] Carnero harto de su rabo se espanta. - -[729] Pauvreté n'est pas vice, mais c'est une espèce de laiderie. - - - - -BEGINNING AND END. - - - =A good beginning makes a good ending.= - - =Well begun is half done.= - -Tersely translated from the Latin, _Dimidium facti qui bene cœpit -habet_. "A beard lathered is half shaved," say the Spaniards.[730] -In an article on the "Philosophy of Proverbs" the author of the -"Curiosities of Literature" gives an example from the Italian, which -he deems of peculiar interest, "for it is perpetuated by Dante, and is -connected with the character of Milton." Besides these distinctions -it has a third (not surmised by Disraeli), as a linguistic curiosity; -for though it consists of but four words, and those among the -commonest in the language, its literal meaning is undetermined, and -diametrically opposite interpretations have been given of it even by -native authorities. _Cosa fatta capo ha_ is the proverb in question, -which some understand as signifying, "A deed done has an end;" or, -as the Scotch say, "A thing done is no to do." It is thus rendered -by Torriano in 1666; whilst Giusti, in 1853, explains it as meaning, -"A deed done has a beginning;" or, in other words, if you would -accomplish anything, you must not content yourself with pondering -over it for ever, but must proceed to action. Such another instance -of divided opinion respecting the import of four familiar words in a -simply-constructed sentence is probably not to be found in the history -of modern languages. - -This proverb is the "bad word" to which tradition ascribes the origin -of the civil wars that long desolated Tuscany. When Buondelmonte -broke his engagement with a lady of the Amadei family, and married -another, the kinsmen of the injured lady assembled to consider how -they should deal with the offender. They inclined to pass sentence of -death upon him; but their fear of the evils that might ensue from that -decision long held them in suspense. At last Mosca Lamberti cried out -that "those who talk of many things effect nothing," quoting, says -Macchiavelli, "that trite and common adage, _Cosa fatta capo ha_." -This decided the question. Buondelmonte was murdered; and the deed -immediately involved Florence in those miserable conflicts of Guelphs -and Ghibellines, from which she had stood aloof until then. The "bad -word" uttered by Mosca has been immortalised by Dante (_Inferno_, -xxviii.), and variously rendered by his English translators. Cary -presents the passage thus:-- - - "Then one - Maim'd of each hand uplifted in the gloom - The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots - Sullied his face, and cried, 'Remember thee - Of Mosca too--I who, alas! exclaim'd, - The deed once done, there is an end--that proved - A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race.'" - -Wright's version is,-- - - "Then one deprived of both his hands, who stood - Lifting the bleeding stumps amid the dim - Dense air, so that his face was stain'd with blood, - Cried, 'In thy mind let Mosca bear a place, - Who said, alas! Deed done is well begun-- - Words fraught with evil to the Tuscan race.'" - -Disraeli adopts Cary's interpretation of the proverb, and does not seem -to suspect that it can have any other. Milton appears to have used it -in the same sense. "When deeply engaged," says Disraeli, "in writing -'The Defence of the People,' and warned that it might terminate in his -blindness, he resolutely concluded his work, exclaiming with great -magnanimity, although the fatal prognostication had been accomplished, -_Cosa fatta capo ha!_ Did this proverb also influence his decision -on that great national event, when the most honest-minded fluctuated -between doubts and fears?" - - =The first blow is half the battle.= - -It is as good as two according to the Italians. - - =The hardest step is over the threshold.= - -"The first step is all the difficulty" (French).[731] It is well -known that after St. Denis was decapitated he picked up his head, -and walked a league with it in his hand to the spot where his church -was afterwards erected. Recounting this miracle one day in a private -circle, Cardinal de Polignac laid great stress on the length of the -way traversed in that manner by the martyred saint; whereupon Madame -du Deffaut remarked that this was not the most surprising part of the -miracle, for in such cases "the first step was all the difficulty." - - =Everything has a beginning.= - - =A child must creep ere it can go.= - -"Every beginning is feeble" (Latin).[732] "'Every beginning is hard,' -as the thief said when he began by stealing an anvil" (German).[733] - - =Rome was not built in a day.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[730] Barba remojada, medio rapada. - -[731] Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte. - -[732] Omne principium est debile. - -[733] Aller Anfang ist schwer, sprach der Dieb, und stahl zuerst einen -Ambos. - - - - -OFFICE. - - - =The office shows the man.= - - ='Tis the place shows the man.= - -It tries his capacity, and shows what stuff he is made of. But it also -forms the man; it teaches him (German)[734] if he has the faculty to -be taught, so that it may be said with some truth, "To whom God gives -an office he gives understanding also" (German).[735] "A great place -strangely qualifies," saith Selden. "John Read was groom of the chamber -to my lord of Kent. Attorney-General Roy being dead, some were saying, -how would the king do for a fit man? 'Why, any man,' says John Read, -'may execute the place.' 'I warrant,' says my lord, 'thou thinkest thou -understand'st enough to perform it.' 'Yes,' quoth John; 'let the king -make me attorney, and I would fain see that man that durst tell me -there's anything I understand not.'" The proverb at the head of this -paragraph is literally translated from a Greek maxim, attributed by -Sophocles to Solon, and to Bias by Aristotle. - - =He is a poor cook that cannot lick his own fingers.= - -And "He is a bad manager of honey" who does not help himself in -the same way (French).[736] The rule applies to all who have the -fingering of good things, whether in a public or a private capacity. -"He who manages other people's wealth does not go supperless to bed" -(Italian).[737] "All offices are greasy" (Dutch).[738] Something -sticks to them. Wheels are greased to make them run smoothly, and in -some countries it is found that what the Dutch call smear money may be -applied to official palms with advantage to the operator. The French -call this _Graisser la patte à quelqu'un_. "'Hast thou no money? then -turn placeman,' said the court fool to his sovereign'" (German).[739] -King James, we are told by L'Estrange, was once complaining of the -leanness of his hunting horse. Archie, his fool, standing by, said -to him, "If that be all, take no care; I'll teach your Majesty a way -to raise his flesh presently; and if he be not as fat as ever he can -wallow, you shall ride me." "I prithee, fool, how?" said the king. -"Why, do but make him a bishop, and I'll warrant you," says Archie. - -A good deal of surreptitious finger-licking and fattening would be -prevented if this truth were clearly understood, that "Office without -pay [or with inadequate pay] makes thieves" (German).[740] "He cannot -keep a good course who serves without reward" (Italian).[741] - - =A man gets little thanks for losing his own.= - -An excuse for taking the perquisites of office, however extortionate -they may be. - - =It is the clerk that makes the justice.= - -The magistrate would often be wrong in his law if he were not kept -right by the clerk. "The blood of the soldier makes the captain great" -(Italian).[742] - - =For faut o' wise men fules sit on binks [benches].=--_Scotch._ - -"For want of good men they made my father alcalde" (Spanish).[743] We -do not always see the right man in the right place. - - =Never deal with the man when you can deal with the master.= - -"It is better to have to do with God than with his saints"[744] is a -French proverb, which Voltaire has fitted with a droll story. A king -of Spain, he tells us, had promised to bestow relief upon the people -of the country round Burgos, who had been ruined by war. They flocked -to the palace, but the doorkeepers would not let them in except on -condition of having part of what they should get. Having consented to -this, the countrymen entered the royal hall, where their leader knelt -at the monarch's feet and said, "I beseech your Royal Highness to -command that every man of us here shall receive a hundred lashes." "An -odd petition truly!" said the king. "Why do you ask for such a thing?" -"Because," said the peasant, "your people insist on having the half of -whatever you give us." - -M. Quitard believes that the saints referred to in the French proverb -are the "frost" or "vintage saints,"[745] so called because their -festivals, which occur in April, are noted in the popular calendar -as days on which frost is injurious to the young green crops and to -vines. The husbandmen, whose fields and vineyards were injured by the -inclemency of the weather, used to hold these saints responsible for -the damage they ought to have prevented, and the reproaches addressed -to them might very naturally take the form perpetuated in the proverb. -This is the more probable as it is recorded in the ecclesiastical -annals of Cahors and Rhodez that the angry agriculturists were in -the habit of flogging the images of the frost saints, defacing -their pictures, and otherwise maltreating them. Rabelais asserts, -with mock gravity, that, in order to put an end to these scandalous -irregularities, a bishop of Auxerre proposed to transfer the festivals -of the frost saints to the dog days, and make the month of August -change place with April. - - =A king's cheese goes half away in parings.= - -His revenues are half eaten up before they enter his coffers. Before -Sully took the French finances in hand such was the system of plunder -established by the farmers of the revenue, that the state realised -only one-fifth of the gross amount of taxes imposed on the subjects; -the other four-fifths were consumed by the financiers. Under such a -wasteful system as this, or one in any degree like it, one might well -say that - - =Kings' chaff is worth other men's corn.= - -The perquisites belonging to the king's service are better than the -wages earned elsewhere. - - =The clerk wishes the priest to have a fat dish.=--_Gaelic._ - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[734] Das Amt lehrt den Mann. - -[735] Wein Gott ein Amt giebt, dem giebt er auch Verstand. - -[736] Celui gouverne bien mal le miel, qui n'en taste et ses doigts -n'en lesche. - -[737] Chi maneggia quel degli altri, non va a letto senza cena. - -[738] Alle amten zijn smeerig. - -[739] Hast du kein Geld? so wird ein Amtmann, sagte jeuer Hofnarr zu -seinen Fürsten. - -[740] Amt ohne Sold macht Diebe. - -[741] - - Buona via non può tenere - Quel chi serve senz' avere. - -[742] Il sangue dei soldati fa grande il capitano. - -[743] Por falta de hombres buenos, á mi padre hicieron alcalde. - -[744] Il vaut mieux avoir affaire à Dieu qu'à ses saints. - -[745] Saints gélifs, saints vendangeurs. - - - - -LAW AND LAWYERS. - - - =Law-makers should not be law-breakers.= - -Parliament has made it penal to pollute the air of towns with smoke, -and the _Builder_ complains that more smoke issues from parliament's -own chimneys than from any six factories in London. - - =Abundance of law breaks no law.= - -It is safer to exceed than to fall short of what the law requires. - - =In a thousand pounds of law there is not an ounce of love.= - - =A pennyweight of love is worth a pound weight of law.= - -So much more cogent is the one than the other. - - =Laws were made for rogues.= - -"For the upright there are no laws" (German).[746] They are designed to -control those to whom it may be said,-- - - =Ye wad do little for God if the deil were dead.=--_Scotch._ - - "The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip - To keep the wretch in order; - But where ye feel your honour grip, - Let that be aye your border. - - "Its slightest touches, instant pause, - Debar a' side pretences, - And resolutely keep its laws, - Uncaring consequences." - - =He that loves law will get his fill of it.= - - =Agree, for the law is costly.= - - =Law's costly; tak a pint and 'gree.=--_Scotch._ - -Lord Mansfield declared that if any man claimed a field from him he -would give it up, provided the concession were kept secret, rather than -engage in proceedings at law. Hesiod, in admonishing his brother always -to prefer a friendly accommodation to a lawsuit, gave to the world the -paradoxical proverb, "The half is more than the whole." Very often "A -lean agreement is better than a fat lawsuit" (Italian).[747] "Lawyers' -garments are lined with suitors' obstinacy" (Italian);[748] and "Their -houses are built of fools' heads" (French).[749] Doctors and lawyers -are notoriously shy of taking what they prescribe for others. "No good -lawyer ever goes to law" (Italian).[750] Lord Chancellor Thurlow did so -once, but in his case the exception approved the rule. A house had been -built for him by contract, but he had made himself liable for more than -the stipulated price by ordering some departures from the specification -whilst the work was in progress. He refused to pay the additional -charge; the builder brought an action and got a verdict against him, -and surly Thurlow never afterwards set foot within the house which was -the monument of his wrong-headedness and its chastisement. - - =Refer my coat, and lose a sleeve.=--_Scotch._ - -Arbitrators generally make both parties abate something of their -pretensions. - - =Fair and softly, as lawyers go to heaven.= - -The odds are great against their ever getting there, if it be true that -"Unless hell is full never will a lawyer be saved" (French).[751] "The -greater lawyer, the worse Christian" (Dutch).[752] "'Virtue in the -middle,' said the devil as he sat between two attorneys" (Danish).[753] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[746] Für Gerechte giebt es keine Gesetze. - -[747] E meglio un magro accordo che una grassa lite. - -[748] Le vesti degli avvocati son fodrate dell' ostinazion dei -litiganti. - -[749] Les maisons des avocats sont faictes de la teste des folz. - -[750] Nessun buon avvocato piatisce mai. - -[751] Si enfer n'est plein, oncques n'y aura d'avocat sauvé. - -[752] Hoe grooter jurist, hoe boozer Christ. - -[753] Dyden i Midten, sagde Fanden, han sal imellem to Procuratoren. - - - - -PHYSIC. PHYSICIANS. MAXIMS RELATING TO HEALTH. - - - =If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; if he kills, the earth hides it.= - -"The earth covers the mistakes of the physician" (Italian, -Spanish).[754] "Bleed him and purge him; if he dies, bury him" -(Spanish).[755] It is a melancholy truth that "The doctor is often more -to be feared than the disease" (French).[756] "Throw physic to the -dogs" is in effect the advice given by many eminent physicians, and by -some of the greatest thinkers the world has seen. "Shun doctors and -doctors' drugs if you wish to be well,"[757] was the seventh, last, and -best rule of health laid down by the famous physician Hoffmann. Sir -William Hamilton declared that "Medicine in the hands in which it is -vulgarly dispensed is a curse to humanity rather than a blessing;" and -Sir Astley Cooper did not scruple to avow that "The science of medicine -was founded on conjecture and improved by murder." It is a remarkable -fact that "The doctor seldom takes physic" (Italian).[758] He does not -appear to have a very lively faith in his own art. As for his alleged -cures, their reality does not pass unquestioned. It is true that -"Dear physic always does good, if not to the patient, at least to the -apothecary" (German);[759] but "It is God that cures, and the doctor -gets the money" (Spanish).[760] Save your money, then, and "If you have -a friend who is a doctor take off your hat to him, and send him to the -house of your enemy" (Spanish).[761] - - =The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merriman.= - - =Every man at forty is either a fool or a physician.= - - =A creaking gate hangs long on its hinges.= - -Valetudinarians often outlive persons of robust constitution who take -less care of themselves. A French saying to this purpose, which is too -idiomatic to be translated, was neatly applied by Pozzo di Borgo in a -conversation with Lady Holland. Her ladyship, exulting in the duration -of the Whig government, notwithstanding the prevalent anticipations of -their fall, said to him, "Vous voyez, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, que nous -vivons toujours." "Oui, madame," he replied, "les petites santés durent -quelquefois longtemps." "Creaking carts last longest" (Dutch).[762] -"The flawed pots are the most lasting" (French).[763] - - =A groaning wife and a grunting horse ne'er failed their master.= - - =Seek your salve where ye got your sore.=--_Scotch._ - - =Take a hair of the dog that bit you.= - -Advice given to persons suffering the after-pains of a carouse. The -same stimulant which caused their nervous depression will also relieve -it. The metaphor is derived from an old medical practice to which -Seneca makes some allusion, and which is commended in a rhyming French -adage to this effect, "With the hair of the beast that bit thee, or -with its blood, thou wilt be cured."[764] Cervantes, in his tale of -_La Gitanilla_, thus describes an old gipsy woman's manner of treating -a person bitten by a dog:--"She took some of the dog's hairs, fried -them in oil, and after washing with wine the two bites she found on the -patients left leg, she put the hairs and the oil upon them, and over -this dressing a little chewed green rosemary. She then bound the leg -up carefully with clean bandages, made the sign of the cross over it, -and said, 'Now go to sleep, friend, and with the help of God your hurts -will not signify.'" - - =One nail drives out another.= - -This is the doctrine of homœopathy. "Poison quells poison" -(Italian).[765] - - "Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, - One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish. - Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning: - One desperate grief cures with another's languish. - Take thou some new infection to thine eye, - And the rank poison of the old will die."--_Romeo and Juliet._ - - =If the wind strike thee through a hole, - Go make thy will and mend thy soul.= - -"A blast from a window is a shot from a crossbow" (Italian).[766] "To a -bull and a draught of air give way" (Spanish).[767] - - =One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two hours after it.= - -Ladies rightly call sleep before midnight "beauty sleep." - - =Old young, and old long.=[768] - -You must leave off the irregularities of youth be-times if you wish to -enjoy a long and hale old age; for - - =Young men's knocks old men feel.= - -"The sins of our youth we atone for in our old age" (Latin).[769] - - =Rub your sore eye with your elbow.= - -He who laid down this rule of sound surgery was a man _qui ne se -mouchait pas du talon_; he did not blow his nose with his heel. If a -speck of dust enters your eye, close the lid gently, keep your fingers -away from it, and leave the foreign body to be washed by the tears -to the inner corner of the eye, whence it may be removed without -difficulty. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[754] Gli errori del medico gli copre la terra. Los yerros del médico -la tierra los cubre. - -[755] Sungrarle y purgarle; si se muriere, enterrarle. - -[756] Le médecin est souvent plus à craindre que la maladie. - -[757] Fuge medicos ac medicamenta, si vis esse salvus. - -[758] Di rado il medico piglia medicina. - -[759] Theure Arznei hilft immer, wenn nicht dem Kranken doch dem -Apotheker. - -[760] Dios es el que sana, y el medico lleva la plata. - -[761] Si tienes medico amigo, quitale la gorra, y envialo á casa de tu -enemigo. - -[762] Krakende wagens duirren het langst. - -[763] Les pots fêtés sont ceux qui durent le plus. - -[764] - - Du poil de la bête qui te mordit, - Ou de son sang, seras guéri. - -[765] Il veleno si spegne col veleno. - -[766] Aria di fenestra, colpodi balestra. - -[767] Al toro y al aire darles calle. - -[768] Mature fias senex, si diu velis esse senex. - -[769] Quæ peccavimus juvenes, ea luimus senes. - - - - -CLERGY. - - - =It's kittle shooting at corbies and clergy.=--_Scotch._ - -Crows are very wary, and the clergy are vindictive; therefore it is -ticklish work trying to get the better of either. "One must either not -meddle with priests or else smite them dead," say the Germans;[770] -and Huss, the Bohemian reformer, in denouncing the sins of the clergy -in his day, has preserved for us a similar proverb of his countrymen: -"If you have offended a clerk kill him, else you will never have -peace with him."[771] "The bites of priests and wolves are hard to -heal" (German).[772] "Priests and women never forget" (German).[773] -"How dangerous it was," says Gross, "to injure the meanest retainer -of a religious house is very ludicrously but justly expressed in the -following old English adage, which I have somewhere met with:-- - - ='Yf perchaunce one offend a freere's dogge, streight clameth the - whole brotherhood, An heresy! An heresy!'"= - -There is an old German proverb to the same purpose, which Eiserlein -heard once from the lips of an aged lay servitor of a monastery in -the Black Forest: "Offend one monk, and the lappets of all cowls will -flutter as far as Rome."[774] - - =What was good the friar never loved.= - -Popular opinion attributes to the clergy, both secular and regular, a -lively regard for the good things of this life, and a determination to -have their full share of them. "No priest ever died of hunger" is a -remark made by the Livonians; and they add, "Give the priests all thou -hast, and thou wilt have given them nearly enough." "A priest's pocket -is hard to fill,"[775] at least in Denmark; and the Italians say, that -"Priests, monks, nuns, and poultry never have enough."[776] "Abbot of -Carzuela," cries the Spaniard, "you eat up the stew, and you ask for -the stewpan."[777] The worst testimony against the monastic order comes -from the countries in which they most abound: "Where friars swarm, -keep your eyes open" (Spanish).[778] "Have neither a good monk for a -friend, nor a bad one for an enemy" (Spanish).[779] "As for friars, -live with them, eat with them, walk with them, and then sell them, for -thus they do themselves" (Spanish).[780] The propensity of churchmen to -identify their own personal interests with the welfare of the church -are glanced at in the following:--"The monk that begs for God's sake -begs for two" (Spanish, French).[781] "'Oh, what we must suffer for -the church of God!' cried the abbot, when the roast fowl burned his -fingers" (German).[782] - - =There's no mischief done in the world but there's a woman or a priest - at the bottom of it.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[770] Man muss mit Pfaffen nicht anfangen, oder sie todtschlagen. - -[771] Malum proverbium contra nos confinxerunt, dicentes, "Si -offenderis clericum, interfice eum; alias nunquam habebis pacem cum -illo." - -[772] Was Pfaffen beissen und Wölfe ist schwer zu heilen. - -[773] Pfaffen und Weiber vergessen nie. - -[774] Beleidigestu einen Münch, so knappe alle Kuttenzipfel bis nach -Rom. - -[775] Præstesæk er ond at fylde. - -[776] Preti, frati, monache, e polli non si trovan mai satolli. - -[777] Abad de Carçuela, comistes la olla, pedis la caçuela. - -[778] Frailes sobrand', ojo alerte. - -[779] Ni buen fraile por amigo, ni malo por enemigo. - -[780] Frailes, viver con ellos, y comer con ellos, y andar con ellos, y -luego vender ellos, que asé hacen ellos. - -[781] Fraile que pide por Dios, pide por dos. Moine qui demande pour -Dieu, demande pour deux. - -[782] O was müssen wir der Kirche Gottes halber leiden! rief der Abt, -als ihm das gebratene Huhn die Finger versengt. - - - - -SEASONS. WEATHER. - - - =If the grass grow in Janiveer, - It grows the worse for it all the year.= - -"When gnats dance in January the husbandman becomes a beggar" -(Dutch).[783] An exception to these rules is recorded by Ray, who -says that "in the year 1667 the winter was so mild that the pastures -were very green in January; yet was there scarcely ever known a more -plentiful crop of hay than the summer following." - - =February fill dike, be it black or be it white.= - - =All the months in the year curse a fair Februeer.= - - =The hind had as lief see his wife on the bier - As that Candlemas day should be pleasant and clear.= - -Candlemas day is the 2nd of February, when the Romish Church celebrates -the purification of the Virgin Mary. On that day, also, the church -candles are blessed for the whole year, and they are carried in -procession in the hands of the faithful. Then the use of tapers at -vespers and litanies, which prevails throughout the winter, ceases -until the ensuing Allhallowmas: hence the proverb,-- - - =On Candlemas day - Throw candle and candlestick away.= - -Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," says there is a general tradition in -most parts of Europe that inferreth the coldness of the succeeding -winter from the shining of the sun on Candlemas day, according to the -proverbial distich:-- - - _Si sol splendescat Marin purificante, - Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante._ - - "If Candlemas day be fair and bright, - Winter will have another flight; - If on Candlemas day there be shower and rain, - Winter is gone and will not come again." - -Another version of this proverb current in the north of England is,-- - - "If Candlemas day be dry and fair, - The half of winter's to come and mair; - If Candlemas day be wet and foul [pronounce _fool_], - The half of winter's gone to Yule." - - =March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.= - - =March comes in with adder heads and goes out with peacock - tails.=--_Scotch._ - - =A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom.= - - =A dry March never begs its bread.= - - =A peck of March dust and a shower in May= - =Make the corn green and the fields gay.= - - =March winds and April showers= - =Bring forth May flowers.= - - =March wind and May sun= - =Make clothes white and maids dun.= - - =So many mists in March you see,= - =So many frosts in May will be.= - - =March grass never did good.= - -"When gnats dance in March it brings death to sheep" (Dutch).[784] - - =When April blows his horn it's good both for hay and corn.= - -"That is," says Ray, "when it thunders in April, for thunder is usually -accompanied with rain." - - =A cold April the barn will fill.= - - =April and May are the keys of the year.= - - =A May flood never did good.= - -This applies to England. In Spain and Italy they say, "Water in May is -bread for all the year."[785] - - =To wed in May is to wed poverty.= - -There were fewer marriages in Scotland in May, 1857, than in any other -month of the year: it is an "unlucky month." The proverb is recorded by -Washington Irving. - - =A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay,= - =A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon,= - =But a swarm in July is not worth a fly.= - - =A shower in July, when the corn begins to fill,= - =Is worth a plough of oxen and all belongs theretill.= - - =A dry summer never made a dear peck.= - =Drought never bred dearth in England.= - -The same thing, and no more, is meant by the following enigmatical -rhyme:-- - - "When the sand doth feed the clay, - England woe and well-a-day; - But when the clay doth feed the sand, - Then is it well with old England." - -The first of these two contingencies occurs after a wet summer--the -second after a dry one; and, as there is more clay than sand in -England, there is a better harvest in the second case than in the first. - - =Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm.= - -They think differently on this point in the south of Europe. "A wet -August never brings dearth" (Italian).[786] "When it rains in August it -rains honey and wine" (Spanish).[787] - - =September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft. - November take flail, let ships no more sail.= - - =A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard.= - -It is a popular notion that a mild winter is less healthy than a frosty -one; but the Registrar-General's returns prove that it is quite the -contrary. The mortality of the winter months is always in proportion -to the intensity of the cold. The proverb, therefore, must be given -up as a fallacy. There is some truth in this of the Germans, "A green -Christmas, a white Easter." The probability is that a very mild winter -will be followed by an inclement spring. - - =A snow year, a rich year.= - - =Under water, dearth; under snow, bread.= - - =Winter's thunder and summer's flood= - =Never boded an Englishman good.= - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[783] Als de muggen in Januar danssen, wordt de boer een bedelaar. - -[784] Als de muggen in Maart danssen, dat doet het schaap den dood aan. - -[785] Acqua di Maggio, pane per tutto l'anno. - -[786] Agosto humido non mena mai carestia. - -[787] Quando llueve en Agosto, llueve miel y mosto. - - - - -NATIONAL AND LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS. LOCAL ALLUSIONS. - - - =A right Englishman knows not when a thing is well.= - -It would seem, too, that he does not know when a thing is ill; for the -French say the English were beaten at Waterloo, but had not the wit to -know it. - - =A Scotsman is aye wise ahint the hand.=--_Scotch._ - - =A Scotsman aye taks his mark frae a mischief.=--_Scotch._ - - =Scotsmen reckon aye frae an ill hour.=--_Scotch._ - -That is, they always date from some untoward event. "A Scottish man," -says James Kelly, "solicited the Prince of Orange to be made an ensign, -for he had been a sergeant ever since his Highness ran away from Groll." - - =The Englishman weeps, the Irishman sleeps, but the Scotsman gaes till - he gets it.=--_Scotch._ - -Such, according to Scotch report, is the conduct of the three when they -want food. - - =The Welshman keeps nothing till he has lost it.=--_Welsh._ - - =The older the Welshman, the more madman.=--_Welsh._ - - =As long as a Welsh pedigree.= - - =The Italianised Englishman is a devil incarnate.=--_Italian._[788] - -This is the testimony of Italians. Of our country they say,-- - - =England is the paradise of women, the purgatory of purses, and the - hell of horses.=--_Italian._[789] - - =War with all the world, and peace with England.=--_Spanish._[790] - - =Beware of a white Spaniard and of a swarthy Englishman.=--_Dutch._[791] - -Apparently because they are out of kind, and therefore presumed to be -uncanny. - - =He has more to do than the ovens of London at Christmas.=--_Italian._ - - =They agree like the clocks of London.=--_French_, _Italian_. - -Which clocks disagree to this day. (See _Household Words_, No. 410.) -"The city time measurers are so far behind each other that the last -chime of eight has hardly fallen on the ear from the last church, -when another sprightly clock is heard to begin the hour of nine. Each -clock, however, governs, and is believed in by, its own immediate -neighbourhood." - - =Shake a bridle over a Yorkshireman's grave, and he will rise and - steal a horse.= - - =He is Yorkshire.= - -He is a keen blade. "He's of Spoleto" (_E Spoletino_), say the -Italians. - - =The devil will not come into Cornwall for fear of being put into a pie.= - -Cornish housewives make pies of such unlikely materials as potatoes, -pilchards, &c. - - =By Tre, Pol, and Pen,= - =You shall know the Cornish men.= - -Surnames beginning with these syllables--_e.g._, Trelawney, Polwhele, -Penrose--are originally Cornish. - - =A Scottish man and a Newcastle grindstone travel all the world - over.= - -Newcastle grindstones were long reputed the best of their kind. Another -version of the proverb associates them with rats and red herrings, -things which are very widely diffused over the globe, but not more so -than Scotchmen. - - =Three great evils come out of the north--a cold wind, a cunning - knave, and a shrinking cloth.= - - =He's an Aberdeen's man; he may take his word again.=--_Scotch._ - - =An Aberdeen's man ne'er stands to the word that hurts him.=--_Scotch._ - -The people of Normandy labour under the same imputation: "A Norman has -his say and his unsay."[792] This proverb is said to have arisen out of -the ancient custom of the province, according to which contracts did -not become valid until twenty-four hours after they had been signed, -and either party was at liberty to retract during that interval. - - =Wise men of Gotham.= - -Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire, declared by universal consent, -for reasons unknown, to be the head quarters of stupidity in this -country, on whose inhabitants all sorts of ridiculous stories might -be fathered. The convenience of having such a butt for sarcasm has -been recognised by all nations. The ancient Greeks had their Bœotia, -which was for them what Swabia is for the modern Germans. The Italians -compare foolish people to those of Zago, "Who sowed needles that they -might have a crop of crowbars, and dunged the steeple to make it -grow."[793] The French say, "Ninety-nine sheep and a Champenese make a -round hundred,"[794] the man being a stupid animal like the rest. The -Abbé Tuet traces back the origin of this story to Cæsar's conquest of -Gaul. Before that period the wealth of Champagne consisted in flocks of -sheep, which paid a rate in kind to the public revenue. The conqueror, -wishing to favour the staple of the province, exempted from taxation -all flocks numbering less than a hundred head, and the consequence -was that the Champenese always divided their sheep into flocks of -ninety-nine. But Cæsar was soon even with them, for he ordered that in -future the shepherd of every flock should be counted as a sheep, and -pay as one. - - =Tenterden steeple's the cause of the Goodwin Sands.= - -This proposition is commonly quoted as a flagrant example of bad logic, -illustrating the fallacy of the reference _post hoc, ergo propter hoc_. -A very quaint account of its origin is given in these words in one of -Latimer's sermons:--"Mr. Moore was once sent with commission into Kent, -to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of Goodwin's Sands, and -the shelf which stopped up Sandwich Haven. Thither cometh Mr. Moore, -and calleth all the country before him; such as were thought to be men -of experience, and men that could of likelihood best satisfy him of the -matter concerning the stopping of Sandwich Haven. Among the rest came -in before him an old man with a white head, and one that was thought to -be little less than an hundred years old. When Mr. Moore saw this aged -man he thought it expedient to hear him say his mind in this matter; -for, being so old a man, it was likely that he knew most in that -presence, or company. So Mr. Moore called this old aged man unto him, -and said, 'Father, tell me, if you can, what is the cause of the great -arising of the sands and shelves here about this haven, which stop it -up so that no ships can arrive here. You are the oldest man I can espy -in all the company, so that if any man can tell the cause of it, you -of all likelihood can say most to it, or at leastwise more than any -man here assembled.' 'Yea, forsooth, good Mr. Moore,' quoth this old -man, 'for I am well-nigh an hundred years old, and no man here in this -company anything near my age.' 'Well, then,' quoth Mr. Moore, 'how say -you to this matter? What think you to be the cause of these shelves -and sands, which stop up Sandwich Haven?' 'Forsooth, sir,' quoth he, -'I am an old man; I think that Tenterton steeple is the cause of -Goodwin's Sands. For I am an old man, sir,' quoth he; 'I may remember -the building of Tenterton steeple, and I may remember when there was no -steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton steeple was in building -there was no manner of talking of any flats or sands that stopped up -the haven; and therefore I think that Tenterton steeple is the cause of -the decay and destroying of Sandwich Haven.'" - -After all, this is not so palpable a _non sequitur_ as it appears, -for, says Fuller, "One story is good till another is told; and though -this be all whereupon this proverb is generally grounded, I met since -with a supplement thereunto: it is this. Time out of mind, money was -constantly collected out of this county to fence the east banks thereof -against the irruption of the sea, and such sums were deposited in the -hands of the Bishop of Rochester; but because the sea had been quiet -for many years without any encroaching, the bishop commuted this money -to the building of a steeple and endowing a church at Tenterden. By -this diversion of the collection for the maintenance of the banks, the -sea afterwards broke in upon Goodwin Sands. And now the old man had -told a rational tale, had he found but the due favour to finish it; and -thus, sometimes, that is causelessly accounted ignorance of the speaker -which is nothing but impatience in the auditors, unwilling to attend -to the end of the discourse." - - =A loyal heart may be landed under Traitors' Bridge.= - -Every one who has passed down the Thames from London Bridge knows that -archway in front of the Tower, under which boats conveying prisoners of -state used to pass to Traitors' Stairs. - - =A knight of Cales, a gentleman of Wales, and a laird of the north - countree;= - =A yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, will buy them out all - three.= - -"Cales knights were made in that voyage by Robert, Earl of Essex, to -the number of sixty, whereof (though many of great birth) some were -of low fortunes; and therefore Queen Elizabeth was half offended with -the earl for making knighthood so common. Of the numerousness of Welsh -gentlemen nothing need be said, the Welsh generally pretending to -gentility. Northern lairds are such who in Scotland hold lands in chief -of the king, whereof some have no great revenue. So that a Kentish -yeoman (by the help of a hyperbole) may countervail," &c.--(_Fuller._) -"A Spanish don, a German count, a French marquis, an Italian bishop, a -Neapolitan cavalier, a Portuguese hidalgo, and a Hungarian noble make -up a so-so company" (Italian).[795] - - =The Italians are wise before the fact, the Germans in the fact, the - French after the fact.=--_Italian._[796] - - =The Italians are known by their singing, the French by their - dancing, the Spaniards by their lording it, and the Germans - by their drinking.=--_Italian._[797] - - =Where Germans are, Italians like not to be.=--_Italian._[798] - - =Italy, heads, holidays, and tempests.=--_Italian._[799] - -A gentleman, who visited Dublin in the O'Connell times, gave it as -the result of his experience there that Ireland was a land of groans, -grievances, and invitations to dinner. - - =He that has to do with a Tuscan must not be blind.=--_Italian._[800] - -There is a double meaning in the original. The same Italian word means -Tuscan and poison. - - =It is better to be in the forest and eat pine cones than to live in a - castle with Spaniards.=--_Italian._[801] - -Because the frugal Spanish soldiers could subsist on diet on which men -of other nations would starve. For them "Bread and radishes were a -heavenly dinner" (Spanish).[802] - - =Abstract from Spaniard all his good qualities, and there remains - a Portuguese.=--_Spanish._ - - =Every layman in Castile might make a king, every clerk a - pope.=--_Spanish._ - -If the overweening pride of the Spaniard appears in these two proverbs, -the candour of the following must also be acknowledged:-- - - =Succours of Spain, either late or never.=--_Spanish._[803] - - =Things of Spain.=--_Spanish._[804] - -That is, abuses, anomalies, and faults of all kinds. See "Ford's -Handbook," _passim_. - - =When the Spaniard sings, either he is mad or he has not a - doit.=--_Spanish._[805] - - =A Pole would rather steal a horse on Sunday than eat milk or - butter on Friday.=--_German._[806] - - =Poland is the hell of peasants, the paradise of Jews, the purgatory - of burghers, the heaven of nobles, and the gold mine of - foreigners.=--_German._[807] - - =A Polish bridge, a Bohemian monk, a Swabian nun, Italian devotion, - and German fasting are worth a bean.=--_German._[808] - - =If the devil came out of hell to fight there would forthwith be a - Frenchman to accept the challenge.=--_French._[809] - - =When the Frenchman sleeps the devil rocks him.=--_French._[810] - - =The Italians weep, the Germans screech, and the French - sing.=--_French._[811] - -This is found word for word in Italian also, though it seems devised -for the special glorification of Frenchmen. The Portuguese say,-- - - =The Frenchman sings well when his throat is - moistened.=--_Portuguese._[812] - - =The Germans have their wit in their fingers.=--_French._[813] - -That means they are skilful workmen. - - =The emperor of Germany is the king of kings, the king of Spain king - of men, the king of France king of asses, the king of England - king of devils.=--_French._[814] - - =It is better to hear the lark sing than the mouse creep.= - -This was the proverb of the Douglases, adopted by every Border chief -to express, as Sir Walter Scott observes, what the great Bruce had -pointed out--that the woods and hills were the safest bulwarks of their -country, instead of the fortified places which the English surpassed -their neighbours in the art of assaulting or defending. The Servians -have a similar saying: "Better to look from the mountain than from the -dungeon." - - =He that has missed seeing Seville has missed seeing a - marvel.=--_Spanish._[815] - - =See Naples and die.=--_Italian._[816] - - =There is but one Paris.=--_French._[817] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[788] L'Inglese italianizzato, un diavolo incarnato. - -[789] Inghilterra paradiso di donne, purgatorio di borse, e inferno di -cavalli. - -[790] Con todo el mondo guerra, y paz con Inglaterra. - -[791] Op een witten Spanjaard en op een zwarten Engelschman moet men -acht geven. - -[792] Un Normand a son dit et son dédit. - -[793] Più pazzi di quei da Zago, che seminavano gucchie per raccogher -poi pali di ferro, e davano del letame al campanile perchè crescesse. - -[794] Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf moutons et un Champenois font cent bêtes. - -[795] Un don di Spagna, conte d'Allemagna, marchese di Francia, vescovo -d'Italia, cavaglier di Napoli, idalgo di Portugullo, nobile d'Ungheria -fanno una tal qual compagnia. - -[796] Gl' Italiani saggi innanzi il fatto, i Tedeschi nel fatto, i -Francesi dopo il fatto. - -[797] L'Italiano al cantare, i Francesi al ballare, i Spagnuoli al -bravare, i Tedeschi allo sbevacchiare, si conoscono. - -[798] Dove stanno Tedeschi, mal volontieri stanno Italiani. - -[799] Italia, teste, feste, e tempeste. - -[800] Chi ha da far con Tosco, non vuol esser losco. - -[801] E meglio star al bosco, e mangiar pignuoli, che star in castello -co' Spagnuoli. - -[802] Pan y ravanillos, comer de Dios. - -[803] Socorros de España, ó tarde, ó nunca. - -[804] Cosas de España. - -[805] Quando el Español canta, ó rabia, ó no tiene blanca. - -[806] Ein Pole würde eher am Sonntag ein Pferd stehlen, als am Freitag -Milch oder Butter essen. - -[807] Polen ist der Bauern Hölle, der Juden Paradies, der Bürger -Fegefeuer, der Edelleute Himmel, und der Fremden Goldgrube. - -[808] Eine Polnische Brücke, ein Böhmischer Mönkh, eine Schabische -Nonne, Welsche Andacht, und der Deutschen Fasten gelten eine Bohne. - -[809] Si le diable sortait de l'enfer pour combattre, il se -présenterait aussitôt un Français pour accepter le défi. - -[810] Quand le Français dort, le diable le berce. - -[811] Les Italiens pleurent, les Allemands crient, et les Français -chantent. - -[812] Bein canta o Francez, papo molhado. - -[813] Les Allemands ont l'esprit au doigts. - -[814] L'empereur d'Allemagne est le roy des roys, le roy d'Espagne roy -des hommes, le roy de France roy des asnes, et le roy d'Angleterre roy -des diables. - -[815] Quien no ha vista Sevilla, no ha vista maraviglia. - -[816] Vedi Napoli e poi mori. - -[817] Il n'y a qu'un Paris. - - - - -INDEX. - - Abbot, 114, 209, 210 - Aberdeen, 218 - Absence, 39 - Absent, 39 - Absents, 41 - Acorn, 51 - Adder, 19 - Ado, much, 128 - Adversity, 67, 151 - Advice, 159, 160 - Advise, 159 - Age, 31 - Agreement, 201 - Alcalde, 197 - Ale, 86, 175 - All but, 87 - Almost, 86, 87 - Alms, 115 - Altar, 123 - Anchuelos, secret of, 178 - Another, 110 - Anvil, 194 - Ape, 27, 35 - Apothecary, 204 - Appearances, 127 - Apple, 113 - Apples, 101 - April, 212, 213 - Arabic, 151 - Archer, 123 - Arm, 62, 73 - Arrow, 34 - Ashamed, 99 - Ass, 33, 34, 70, 76, 79, 90, 102, 120 - Ass's head, 34 - Ass's tail, 34 - Attorneys, 202 - August, 214 - Aunt's house, 40 - Aver, 34 - - - Bachelors' wives, 103 - Back, 54, 70 - Backward, 153 - Bacon, 128 - Badger, 41 - Bail, 64 - Bald, 124, 127 - Bale, 57 - Bargain, 74 - Barkers, 171 - Battle, 68, 193 - Bean, 123 - Bear, 142 - Beard, 59, 191 - Bearskin, 142 - Beauty, 8, 10 - Bee, 35 - Beetle, 101 - Beginning, 191, 194 - Begun, 191 - Bell, 91 - Bell the cat, 174 - Bend, 30 - Best, 75, 122, 152, 153 - Bides, 68 - Bird, 36, 37, 77, 141, 145, 173 - Bite, 58, 172, 173 - Bitterness, 110 - Blackamoor, 34, 120 - Black puddings, 113 - Blood, 33 - Blood-letting, 73 - Blossom, 30 - Boast, 173 - Boaster, 173 - Bog, 160 - Bohemian, 225 - Bone, 32 - Boot, 57 - Boots, 84 - Born, 54 - Born to be hanged, 182 - Borrow, 113, 138 - Bow, 82 - Brag, 173 - Bray, 134 - Bread, 189, 215 - Breeches, 181 - Bricks, 58 - Bride, 9 - Broke my leg, 56 - Brothers, 49 - Brother's house, 40 - Builds, 160 - Bull, 153, 206 - Bury, 203 - Bush, 47, 155, 175 - Busy, 72 - Butter, 132 - Buyer, 129 - By and by, 138 - - - Cackling, 86 - Cake, 123 - Cales, 222 - Calf, 81, 104 - Candle, 135 - Candlelight, 10 - Candlemas, 211, 212 - Cap, 125 - Capon, 114 - Capples, 22 - Captain, 197 - Carcass, 59 - Care, 129 - Case altered, 111 - Castile, 224 - Castles, 142, 143 - Cat, 33, 54, 61, 76, 86, 98, 106, 107, 128, 131, 149, 172 - Cat, a baited, 83 - Caudle, 114 - Chaff, 199 - Champenese, 219 - Charity, 104 - Charybdis, 158 - Cheapest, 75 - Cheats, 149 - Cheese, 132, 199 - Chester, 68 - Chick, 141 - Chickens, 141, 142 - Child, 26, 27, 64, 104, 114, 148, 170, 194 - Children, 26, 28, 52, 103 - Choice, 152 - Choose, 152 - Christened, 114 - Christian, 140 - Christmas, 214, 215, 217 - Church, 132 - Church of God, 210 - Churl, 116 - Clergy, 208 - Clerk, 197, 199, 208, 224 - Clerks, 151 - Cloak, 128 - Clocks, 217 - Clothes, 99 - Coach, 103 - Coal, 129 - Coal-sack, 35 - Coat, 73, 202 - Cobbler's dog, 103 - Cook, 27, 37, 65 - Collier, 37 - Colt, 29 - Common fame, 163 - Company, 99 - Comparisons, 154 - Comrade, 48 - Conquers, 69 - Contrivance, 157 - Cook, 196 - Cook and butler, 180 - Cornish, 218 - Cornwall, 56, 218 - Cossack, 69 - Cost, 75 - Council, 159 - Counsel, 63 - Counselled, 159 - Courtesy, 131 - Covet, 78 - Covetousness, 78 - Cow, 34, 104, 108 - Coward, 83 - Crab, 32 - Craft, 131 - Craftsman, 97 - Crane, 145 - Cranes, 179 - Creaking, 205 - Creep, 194 - Cripple, 120, 151 - Cripples, 85, 99 - Crooked carlin, 120 - Crooks, 30 - Crow, 27, 120 - Crucifixes, 55 - Cry, great, 128 - Cry out, 57 - Cup, 144 - Cupar, 93 - Curse, 172 - Custom, 96-98 - Cutty, 155 - - - Dainty, 189 - Dancer, 89 - Darkest hour, 57 - Daughter, 114 - Daughters, 24, 28 - Day, 67, 142 - Daylight, 166 - Dead, 114 - Dead men's, 146 - Dear, 74 - Debt, 64 - Deil, 65, 71, 72, 128, 200 - Deils, 63 - Delay, 139 - Devil, 86, 130, 132, 136, 138, 143, 153, 187, 217 - Devils, 52 - Die, 146 - Dirt, 162 - Dirty-nosed, 120 - Dishclout, 84, 163 - Disease, 203 - Ditch, 142 - Doctor, 203, 204 - Dog, 37, 48, 51, 58, 83, 103, 148, 150, 157, 162, 171, 190 - Dog, mad, 183 - Dogs, 99, 154 - Doing nothing, 71 - Dollar, 54 - Done, 191 - Donkey, 102 - Door, 67 - Down, 58, 59 - Drink, 90 - Driver, 122 - Drought, 214 - Drown, 182 - Drowned, 64, 182 - Drowning, 58 - Drunken, 124, 181 - Drunkenness, 181 - Dunghill, 37 - Dyke, 59, 103 - Dyke side, 72 - - - Eagles, 35, 59 - Ears, 28, 180 - Earth, 203 - East, 83 - Eaten bread, 118 - - Egg, 86, 113, 145 - Eggs, 154 - Elbow, 207 - Emperor, 132 - Empty, 129 - Ending, 191 - Enemy, 44, 83 - England, 214, 217 - English, 64 - Englishman, 37, 215-217 - Enough, 77-79 - Even song, 67 - Evening, 63 - Everybody, 163 - Every man, 94, 104 - Every one, 104, 105, 108, 159 - Everything, 194 - Evil, 57, 63 - Ewe, 70 - Ewe and lamb, 45 - Excuse, excuses, 39, 123, 124, 126 - Experience, 148 - Extremes, 83 - Eye, 78 - Eye, sore, 207 - - - Fair and softly, 79 - Fall out, 180 - Fame, common, 163 - Familiarity, 41 - Far awa', 39 - Farther, 153 - Fashion, 99 - Fashious, 40 - Fast bind, 65 - Fasting, 124 - Father, 26, 54, 187, 197 - Fault, 39, 123, 124, 129 - Faultless, 122 - Faults, 11 - Favour, 118 - Feast, 83 - February, 211 - Februeer, 211 - Fellowship, 50 - Feyther, 27 - Fiddlers, 50 - Fierce, 37, 83 - Fifteen, 29 - Figs, 94 - Filly, 27 - Fine, 9 - Fingers, 68 - Fire, 60, 81, 82, 163, 179 - Fire, catching, 124 - First blow, 193 - Fish, 68, 86, 94, 141, 149 - Fisherman, 122 - Five, 29 - Flawed pots, 205 - Flax, 11 - Fleas, 7, 80, 99 - Flesh, 32 - Fleyed, 57 - Flies, 35, 70, 81 - Flitches, 128 - Foe, 43 - Folks, 164 - Folly, 34 - Fool, 29, 34, 52, 75, 91, 94, 120, 160, 161, 169 - Fools, 28, 52, 74, 160 - Forbid, 94 - Forbidden fruit, 93 - Force, 157 - Forgotten, 39 - Fortune, 52, 55, 56 - Forward, 153 - Foster, 41, 46 - Foul finger, 121 - Fox, 154, 183 - Foxes, 183 - Framet, 40 - France, 225 - Free, 115 - Freere's, 209 - French, 222, 223, 225 - Frenchman, 225 - Friar, 55, 133, 209 - Friars, 209, 210 - Friar's conscience, 65 - Friday, 124, 224 - Friend, 40, 43, 45, 46, 204 - Friends, 39, 40, 43-46, 136, 147 - Friendship, 40, 42, 43, 45 - Frog, 34 - Fruit, 70, 161 - Fruit, forbidden, 93 - Fruit, late, 30 - Fryingpan, 161 - Fules, 197 - Full-fed, 190 - Furriers, 183 - - - Gain, 76 - Galled horse, 124 - Gallows, 116, 183 - Gambrel, 30 - Gander, 1 - Gear, 75 - Gear to tine, 186 - Gentle, 70, 81 - Gentleness, 81 - German, 222, 225 - Germany, 225 - Gibbet, 116 - Giblets, 115 - Giff-gaff, 50 - Gifts, 90 - Gileynoar, 79 - Giving, 113 - Glass houses, 119 - Glitters, 128 - Glowworm, 128 - Glutton, 81 - Goat, 10 - God, 105, 114, 130, 136, 138, 139, 141, 145, 170, 187, 200, 204 - God help, 120 - Godfathers, 114 - God's sake, 115, 210 - Gold, 83, 128, 188 - Good name, 164 - Good-will, 90 - Goodwin Sands, 220 - Goose, 1, 115 - Gospel, 157 - Gotham, 219 - Grace of God, 79 - Grapes, 94 - Grass, 211 - Greedy, 78, 79 - Grey mare, 23 - Grindstone, 218 - Gudewife, 76 - Gudewilly, 115 - Guest, 41 - - - Habit, 97 - Hackerton's cow, 112 - Hair, 124, 145 - Half, 155, 201 - Halt, 151 - Hameliness, 41 - Hand, 173 - Hand, in, 145 - Handsaw, 157 - Handsome, 10 - Hang, 125, 128, 154, 183-185 - Hanged, 84, 116, 125, 182, 184, 188 - Hanging, 125, 127 - Hangit, 109 - Hangs, 162 - Hanselled, 185 - Hap, 53 - Happy, 53, 187 - Hardest step, 193 - Hare, 101, 134 - Hares, 145 - Harried, 53 - Harvest, 214 - Haste, 80 - Hatter, 54 - Hawk, 34 - Hay, 138 - Head, sound, 123 - Hearsay, 163 - Heart, 110, 131 - Heaven, 136 - Heaven, goes to, 187 - Hell, 90, 91, 136, 202 - Helmet, 64 - Help, 46, 48, 160 - Helps, 147 - Helped, 159 - Hen, 23, 33 - Hens, 115 - Hen's egg, 86, 113 - Herring, 105, 141 - Hobby, 95 - Hog, 35 - Home, 36, 104 - Homely, 36 - Honest man, 132, 164, 167 - Honesty, 166 - Honey, 35, 70, 81, 196, 214 - Hood, 133 - Hooly and fairly, 79 - Hope, 125, 146, 147 - Hopers, 91 - Horn, 62, 133 - Horse, 29, 49, 70, 86, 90, 115 - Horse corn, 115 - Horses, 101 - Horse, a good, 122 - Horseman, 103 - Host, 108, 141 - Hostess, 9 - Hound, 33 - Hounds, 90, 101, 134, 150 - House, 21, 37, 38, 82, 175 - Hungarian, 222 - Hunger, 189, 190, 209 - Hungry, 81, 146, 189, 190 - Hunters, 132 - Hurt, 57 - Husbands, 22 - - - Ibycus, 179 - Idle, 71, 72 - Ill, 55, 56, 58 - Ill name, 162 - Ill said, 126 - Ill-will, 162 - Ill wind, 56 - Intentions, 90, 91 - Irishman, 216 - Iron, 138 - Italian, 222, 223, 225 - Italianised Englishman, 217 - Italy, 223 - - - Jack, 52, 82 - Janiveer, 211 - January, 211 - Jealousy, 12 - Jedwood, 185 - Jews, 224 - Joan, 10 - Jock Thief, 48 - John Jelly, 105 - Joyous heart, 89 - Judgment, 159 - July, 213 - June, 213 - Justice, 112 - Justice, Peralvillo, 184 - Justice, the, 197 - - - Kail, 65 - Kent, 222 - Kettle, 120 - Key, 65, 100 - Keys, 68 - Kick, 58 - Kiln, 120 - Kind, 33 - Kindness, 14, 42 - King, 38, 85, 101 - King's, 199 - King's horses, 102 - Kiss, 131 - Kissing, 46 - Kitchen, 74 - Knave, 117 - Knock down, 58 - - - Labours, 71 - Lack, 78 - Ladder, 48 - Lady, 49 - Laird, 136, 222 - Lamb, 84 - Landlady, 9 - Lark, 226 - Lass, 152 - Lasses, 11 - Late fruit, 30 - Lathered, 191 - Latin, 151 - Law, 145, 200, 201 - Law breakers, 200 - Law makers, 200 - Laws, 200 - Lawsuit, 201 - Lawyer, 201, 202 - Lawyers, 189, 201, 202 - Layman, 224 - Leak, 75 - Leap, 61 - Leg, 56, 73 - Lend, 114 - Leveret, 145 - Liar, 48, 173 - Liars, 165 - Lidford, 184 - Lie, lies, 123, 149, 165 - Lifeless, 122 - Likely, 128 - Lion, 37, 48, 83 - Lion's den, 96 - Little, 28 - Little sticks, 79 - Live, 150 - Live-long, 80 - London, 217 - Longears, 120 - Loose, 65 - Lorris, 58 - Losing, 55 - Love, 11-15, 26, 200 - Loyal, 222 - Luck, 51-54, 71 - Lucky, 53 - Luther's shoes, 102 - Lying, 86 - - - Mad, 100 - Mad dog, 183 - Maggots, 55 - Maid, 28 - Maiden, 185 - Maids' children, 103 - Malmsey, 93 - Many, 82 - Many ways, 156 - March, 212, 213 - Mare, 27, 129 - Marriage, 18, 20, 21 - Married, 114 - Marries, 16 - Marry, 15, 17, 21, 23, 24, 28 - Martin, 87, 88 - Mass, 139 - Master, 37, 50, 106, 197 - May, 212, 213 - Measure, 62 - Mice, 33 - Midden, 17, 37 - Mill, 83, 104, 147 - Miller, 106 - Mind, 39 - Minster, 139 - Mire, 128 - Mischief, 64, 71, 210 - Miser, 83 - Miser's money, 75 - Misfortune, 55, 56 - Miss, 87 - Mither, 26, 27 - Mixon, 16 - Money, 67, 184, 186 - Monk, 132, 210, 225 - Monks, 209 - Montgomery, 47 - Moor, 174, 188 - Morning, 63 - Moses, 58 - Mother, 26-28, 109, 170 - Mother-in-law, 25 - Mother of God, 52 - Mother's milk, 32 - Moulter, 106 - Mountain, 128, 226 - Mouse, 69, 77, 85, 128, 154, 226 - Mousetrap, 173 - Much, 78 - Much ado, 128 - Mulberry, 69 - Murder, 178 - - - Naebody, 126 - Naethin, 71 - Nag, 34 - Nail, 154, 206 - Naked, 99 - Naples, 226 - Neck, 55, 85 - Need, 48, 49, 190 - Neighbours, 40 - Nest, 36 - Newcastle, 218 - News, 109 - Night, 57, 142 - Nile, 54 - Nobody, 112 - Nose, 54, 109, 124, 125 - Nothing to do, 72 - November, 214 - Nuns, 209 - - - Offence, 126 - Office, 195, 197 - Offices, 196 - Old, 149, 206 - Old sores, 63 - Olive, 142 - One-eyed, 154 - Opens, 67 - Opinions, 160 - Orchard, 113 - Oven, 120 - Ower hot, 82 - Ower mony, 82 - Ox, 37, 54 - - - Pacha, 101 - Pains, 71, 72 - Pan, 120 - Paradise, 217 - Paris, 226 - Path, 123 - Patience, 66, 68, 69 - Pence, 75 - Penny, 54, 75, 84 - Peralvillo, 184 - Perforce, 90 - Perhaps, 86 - Perseverance, 69 - Peter, 45, 101 - Petticoat, 112 - Pettitoes, 115 - Physician, 121, 208 - Pie, 113 - Pig, 51, 61, 115, 128 - Pilot, 103 - Pinches, 110 - Pipers, 50 - Pitchers, 28 - Place, 195 - Plain dealing, 166 - Play, 82, 33 - Pleasure, 94 - Plenty, 189 - Poke, 61 - Poker, 120 - Poland, 224 - Pole, 224 - Polichinelle, secret of, 178 - Polish, 225 - Poor, 114 - Poor man, 76 - Pope, 135, 224 - Portuguese, 98, 222, 224 - Possession, 145 - Pot, 45, 108, 120 - Pots, 205 - Pottage, 14 - Potter, 108 - Poultry, 209 - Poverty, 14, 189, 190 - Praise, 142 - Pretty girl, 11 - Priest, 104, 123, 199, 209 - Priests, 208 - Pudding, 151 - Puddle, 123 - Purgatory, 217 - Puir man, 59 - Purse, 44, 76 - - - Quaker, 162 - - - Rain, 67 - Rains, 56 - Raven, 117, 120 - Raven, belongs to the, 182 - Reason, 156 - Receiver, 48 - Reckons, 140 - Refer, 202 - Reward, 197 - Rich, 114, 188 - Rich man, 44, 188 - Rich year, 215 - Ride, 49 - Ridiculous, 83 - Right, 57 - Rings, 68 - Riven Dish, 117 - River, 77, 129, 153, 183, 188 - Robin Hood, 102 - Rogue, 52, 188 - Rogues, 149, 180, 188, 200 - Rolling stone, 69 - Rome, 98, 135, 140 - Rope, 125, 127 - Rose, 123 - - - Sack, 48 - Saddle, 69, 86 - Sail, 86 - Saint, 131 - Saints, 197 - Salmon, 113 - Salt-box, 55 - Satan, 133 - Saying, 174 - Scolding wife, 22 - Scotsman, 216 - Scotsmen, 216 - Scottish, 218 - Scratch, 125 - Scylla, 153 - Sea, 86, 103 - Second thoughts, 83 - Secret, 177-180 - Self, 104, 106 - Self-praise, 175 - September, 214 - Serpent, 148 - Serves, 197 - Seville, 226 - Shabby, 128 - Shaft or bolt, 155 - Shave, 157 - Shaved, 191 - Sheep, 70, 84, 105, 169, 190 - Sheriff, 153 - Shift, 155 - Shins, 186 - Ship, 75, 151 - Shirt, 112 - Shoe, 110 - Shoemaker's wife, 140 - Shoes, 84 - Shoots, 122 - Shot, 123 - Shoulders, 70 - Shovel, 120 - Shrew, 103 - Shuts, 67 - Sicker, 123 - Sickness, 132 - Sight, 39 - Silence, 168, 169, 172 - Silent, 169 - Silk purse, 34 - Sing, 94 - Singed cat, 128 - Sink a ship, 55 - Skull, 120 - Skunk, 106 - Slander, 161 - Sleep, 63, 206 - Slight, 155 - Slip, 144 - Sloth, 72 - Smoky chimney, 22 - Smith, 97 - Smock, 112 - Smoke, 161 - Smokes, 163 - Snake, 117 - Snow, 215 - Soberness, 181 - Soft fire, 81 - Softly, 79 - Soldier, 197 - Soldiers, 132 - Son, 28, 187 - Sons-in-law, 114 - Soon, 30, 82 - Sore eye, 207 - Sore-eyed, 121 - Sores, old, 63 - Sorrow, 55 - Sour, 129 - Sow, 34, 49, 189 - Spain, 224, 225 - Spaniard, 217, 223, 224 - Spanish, 222 - Speech, 168 - Spoil, 98 - Spoil a horn, 62, 86 - Spoleto, 217 - Spoon, 86 - Spots, 121, 122 - Sprat, 113 - Spune, 62, 65 - Squints, 10 - Stable door, 63 - Steal, 115 - Steal a horse, 164, 217, 224 - Stealing, 133, 194 - Stop, 193 - Sticking, 156 - Sting, 117 - Stinking fish, 108 - Stockfish, 18 - Stolen, 63, 93 - Store, 75 - Storm, 67 - Stout, 49 - Stout heart, 69 - Stretch your arm, 62 - Strike, 138 - Stuarts, 101 - Stupidity, 52 - Sublime, 83 - Summer, 214 - Summers, 215 - Sunday, 224 - Supper, 76 - Supperless, 196 - Surety, 64 - Swabian, 225 - Sweet malt, 81 - Swimmer, 123 - - - Take-it-easy, 80 - Tarry breeks, 50 - Teeth, 16, 173 - Tenterden steeple, 220 - Tether, 145 - Thanks, 197 - Thief, 48, 116, 183, 194 - Thieves, 24, 184 - Think, 168 - Tholes, 69 - Thorn, 30 - Thorns, 101 - Threatened, 171, 172 - Threats, 173 - Three, 49 - Threshold, 193 - Thriftless, 76 - Thunder, 215 - Ties, 65 - Tiles, 119 - Time, 67, 69, 138, 139 - Tippler, 128 - Tired, 69 - Tod, 106 - To-day, 138, 145 - Tod's hide, 183 - Tom Noddy's, 178 - Tongue, 16, 131, 169, 170, 173 - To-morrow, 138, 145 - Too dear, 95 - Too many, 82, 154 - Too much, 77, 79, 131 - Tossed, 54 - Toughest, 69 - Traitors' bridge, 222 - Transplanted, 69 - Tree, 70 - Treve, 106 - Trust, 65, 107 - Truth, 166 - Tub, 105 - Tumble, 54 - Turn, 50 - Turn one's back, 187 - Tuscan, 223 - Twig, 30 - Two, 49 - Two anchors, 154 - Two faces, 133 - Two heads, 159 - Two parishes, 133 - Two strings, 154 - Two to one, 49 - - - Ugly, 9, 10 - Unhappy, 54, 146 - Unknown, 62 - Unlikely, 128 - Unlucky, 183 - Unmannerly, 40 - Unwilling, 90 - Use, 75, 96, 97 - - - Venom, 35 - Vicar of Bray, 134 - Vicars, 130 - Vine, 144 - Vinegar, 81 - Virtue, 202 - Voluntary, 89 - - - Wales, 222 - Wall, 59 - Walls, 180 - Want, 75 - Wants, 189 - War, 151, 217 - Wasp, 35 - Waste, 75 - Water, 59, 93, 100, 104, 129, 131, 144, 147, 182, 188 - Waters, 129 - Way, 89 - Weakest, 59 - Wed, 16, 20 - Wedding, 24 - Wee fire, 79 - Welcome, 41 - Well, a, 64 - Wells, 100 - Welsh, 216 - Welshman, 216 - West, 83 - Wheelbarrow, 103 - Whistle, 95 - White flour, 35 - Widow 18, 24 - Wife, 2, 17-20, 22-24, 152 - Wife's, 3, 7 - Wight man, 89 - Wilful, 93 - Will, 89, 90, 139 - Willing, 89, 115 - Willing horse, 70 - Wind, 56, 86, 174, 206 - Winding-sheets, 54 - Wine, 43, 175, 176, 181, 214 - Winters, 215 - Wise men, 197 - Wist, 62 - Wit, 75, 148, 181 - Wives, 22 - Wolf, 32, 70, 163, 169 - Wolves, 99 - Woman, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 210 - Women, 1-4, 6, 7, 10, 208 - Woo, 17, 20 - Wood, 142 - Woodie, 182 - Wooing, 21 - Wool, 128 - Words, 168, 172, 174, 181 - Work, 82, 90 - World, 58 - Worst, 57, 172, 174, 181 - Wren, 145 - Write, 169 - Wrong, 57 - Wytes, 123 - - - Yew bow, 68 - Yorkshire, 217 - Yorkshireman, 217 - Young, 206 - Youth, 29, 31 - Yowl, 57 - - - Zago, 219 - -THE END. - - -Winchester: Printed by Hugh Barclay. - - - - -NEW BOOKS - -PUBLISHED BY W. 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BOGUE), 86, FLEET STREET, - AND PATERNOSTER ROW. - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - -Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation -inconsistencies have been silently repaired. - -Corrections. - -The first line indicates the original, the second the correction. - -p. 154 - - =The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.= - =The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.= (Latin) - -p. 193 - - =Teh hardest step is over the threshold.= - =The hardest step is over the threshold.= - -Footnote 362: - - Der Weg zum Verderben est mit guten Vorsätzen gepflastert. - Der Weg zum Verderben ist mit guten Vorsätzen gepflastert. - -Footnote 557: - - Chi della serpa è punto, ha paura della lucertola. - Chi della serpe è punto, ha paura della lucertola. - -Footnote 653: - - Van dreigen sterft man niet. - Van dreigen sterft men niet. - -Footnote 657: - - Schiaffo minacciato, mai ben dato. Bofeton amagado, nunca bien dado. - Schiaffo minacciato, mai ben dato. Bofetón amagado, nunca bien dado. - -Footnote 658: - - Gato maublador nunca buen caçador. - Gato maullador nunca buen caçador. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Proverbs of All Nations, by Walter Keating Kelly - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS *** - -***** This file should be named 63190-0.txt or 63190-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/1/9/63190/ - -Produced by ellinora, Eleni Christofaki and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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