Chapter III: Part 3

"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.=