Chapter II: Part 2

[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.=