Chapter IV: Part 4

="Great cry and little wool," as the fellow said when he sheared the
pig.=

="Meikle cry and little woo'," as the deil said when he clipped the
sow.=--_Scotch._

"The mountain is in labour, and will bring forth a mouse" (Latin).[470]

=Likely lies in the mire, and unlikely gets over.=--_Scotch._

Some from whom great things are expected fail miserably, while others of no apparent mark or promise surprise the world by their success.

=You must not hang a man by his looks.=

He may be one who is

=Like a singed cat, better than likely.=

"Under a shabby cloak there is a good tippler" (Spanish).[471]

="Care not" would have it.=

Affected indifference is often a trick to obtain an object of secret desire. "I don't want it, I don't want it," says the Spanish friar; "but drop it into my hood."[472] "'It is nought, it is nought,' saith the buyer; but when he is gone he vaunteth." The girls of Italy, who know how often this artifice is employed in affairs of love, have a ready retort against sarcastic young gentlemen in the adage, "He that finds fault would fain buy."[473]

=He that lacks [disparages] my mare would buy my mare.=--_Scotch._

="Sour grapes," said the fox when he could not reach them.=

=Empty vessels give the greatest sound.=

=Shaal [shallow] waters mak the maist din.=--_Scotch._

=Smooth waters run deep=; _or_,

=Still waters are deep.=

This last proverb, we are told by Quintus Curtius, was current among the Bactrians.[474] The Servians say, "A smooth river washes away its banks;" the French, "There is no worse water than that which sleeps."[475] "The most covered fire is the strongest" (French);[476] and "Under white ashes there is glowing coal" (Italian).[477]

=Where God has his church the devil will have his chapel.=

So closely does the shadow of godliness--hypocrisy--wait upon the substance. "Very seldom does any good thing arise but there comes an ugly phantom of a caricature of it, which sidles up against the reality, mouths its favourite words as a third-rate actor does a great part, under-mimics its wisdom, overacts its folly, is by half the world taken for it, goes some way to suppress it in its own time, and perhaps lives for it in history."[478] Defoe says,--

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found upon examination
The latter has the largest congregation."

The proverb is found in nearly the same form in Italian.[479] The French say, "The devil chants high mass,"[480] which reminds us of another English adage, applied by Antonio to Shylock:--

=The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.=

"The devil lurks behind the cross,"[481] say the Spaniards; and, "By the vicar's skirts the devil gets up into the belfry."[482] "O the slyness of sin," exclaim the Germans, "that puts an angel before every devil!"[483] The same thought is expressed by the Queen of Navarre in her thirteenth novel, where she speaks of "covering one's devil with the fairest angel."[484]

=When the fox preaches beware of the geese.=

"The fox preaches to the hens" (French).[485] "When the devil says his paternosters he wants to cheat you" (French).[486] "Never spread your wheat in the sun before the canter's door" (Spanish).[487]

=A honey tongue, a heart of gall.=

=Mouth of ivy, heart of holly.=--_Irish._

=He can say, "My jo," an' think it na.=--_Scotch._

=Too much courtesy, too much craft.=

"The words of a saint, and the claws of a cat" (Spanish).[488] "The cat is friendly, but scratches" (Spanish).[489] "Many kiss the hands they would fain see chopped off" (Arab and Spanish).[490]

=He looks as if butter would not melt in his mouth.=

Said of a very demure person, sometimes with this addition, "And yet cheese would not choke him." Of such a person the Spaniards say, "He looks as if he would not muddy the water."[491] "Nothing is more like an honest man than a rogue" (French).[492]

=They're no a' saints that get holy water.=--_Scotch._

"All are not saints who go to church" (Italian).[493] "Not all who go to church say their prayers" (Italian).[494] "All are not hunters who blow the horn" (French).[495] "All are not soldiers who go to the wars" (Spanish).[496] "All are not princes who ride with the emperor" (Dutch).[497]

=The chamber of sickness is the chapel of devotion.=

=The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;=
=The devil grew well, the devil a monk was he!=[498]

"All criminals turn preachers when they are under the gallows" (Italian).[499] "The galley is in a bad way when the corsair promises masses and candles" (Spanish).[500]

=Satan rebukes sin.=[501]

=The friar preached against stealing when he had a pudding in his
sleeve.=

According to the Italian account of the affair the friar had a goose in his scapulary on that occasion.[502] "Do as the friar says, and not as he does" (Spanish).[503]

=To carry two faces under one hood.=

To be what the Romans called "double-tongued,"[504] or, in French phrase, "To wear a coat of two parishes."[505] Formerly the parishes in France were bound to supply the army with a certain number of pioneers fully equipped. Every parish claimed the right of clothing its man in its own livery, whence it followed that when two parishes jointly furnished only one man, he was dressed in parti-coloured garments, each parish being represented by a moiety which differed from the other in texture and colour.

=To hold with the hare, and hunt with the hounds.=

To be "Jack o' both sides," true to neither. The Romans called this "Sitting on two stools."[506] Liberius Mimus was one of a new batch of senators created by Cæsar. The first day he entered the august assembly, as he was looking about for a seat, Cicero said to him, "I would make room for you were we not so crowded together." This was a sly hit at Cæsar, who had packed the senate with his creatures. Liberius replied, "Ay, you always liked to sit on two stools."

The Arabs say of a double dealer, "He says to the thief, 'Steal;' and to the house-owner, 'Take care of thy goods.'" "He howls with the wolves when he is in the wood, and bleats with the sheep in the field" (Dutch).[507]

=If the devil is vicar, you'll be clerk.=

=If the deil be laird, you'll be tenant.=--_Scotch._

=The deil ne'er sent a wind out of hell but he wad sail with
it.=--_Scotch._

=The vicar of Bray will be vicar of Bray still.=

Simon Aleyn, or Allen, held the Vicarage of Bray, in Berkshire, for fifty years, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and was always of the religion of the sovereign for the time being. First he was a Papist, then a Protestant, afterwards a Papist, and a Protestant again; yet he would by no means admit that he was a turncoat. "No," said he, "I have always stuck to my principle, which is this--to live and die vicar of Bray." His consistency has been celebrated in a song, the burden of which is,--

"For this is law I will maintain--
Unto my dying day, sir,
Whatever king in England reign,
I'll be the vicar of Bray, sir."

"Such are men, now o' days," says Fuller, "who, though they cannot turn the wind, they turn their mills, and set them so that wheresoever it bloweth, their grist should certainly be grinded."

During the Peninsular war many signboards over shops and hotels in Spanish towns had on one side the arms of France, and on the other those of Spain, which were turned as best suited the interests of their owners and the feelings of the troops which alternately occupied the place.

=It is hard to sit at Rome and fecht wi' the pope.=--_Scotch._

Prudence forbids us to engage in strife with those in whose power we are. Oriental servility goes further than this. Bernier tells us that it was a current proverb in the dominions of the Great Mogul, "If the king saith at noonday, 'It is night,' you are to say, 'Behold the moon and stars!'" The Egyptians say, "When the monkey reigns dance before him." The philosopher desisted from controversy with the Emperor Hadrian, confessing himself unable to cope in argument with the master of thirty legions.

=There's nae gude in speaking ill o' the laird within his ain
bounds.=--_Scotch._

On this principle Baillie Nicol Jarvie thinks it well, when passing the Fairies' Hill, to call them, as others do, men of peace, meaning thereby to conciliate their good-will. "Speak not ill of a great enemy," says Selden, "but rather give him good words, that he may use you the better if you chance to fall into his hands. The Spaniard did this when he was dying. His confessor told him (to work him to repentance) how the devil tormented the wicked that went to hell. The Spaniard replying, called the devil 'my lord.' 'I hope my lord the devil is not so cruel.' His confessor reproved him. 'Excuse me,' said the don, 'for calling him so. I know not into what hands I may fall; and if I happen into his, I hope he will use me the better for giving him good words.'"

=It is good to have friends everywhere.=

=It's gude to hae friends baith in heaven and hell.=--_Scotch._

Brantôme relates that Robert de la Mark had a painting executed, in which were represented St. Margaret and the devil, with himself on his knees before them, a candle in each hand, and a scroll issuing from his mouth, containing these words: "If God will not aid me, the devil surely will not fail me." This is quite in the spirit of Virgil's line, "If I cannot bend the celestials to my purpose I will move hell."[508] Others besides De la Mark have thought it prudent "To offer a candle to God and another to the devil" (French);[509] or, "A candle to St. Michael and one to his devil" (French),[510] lest the time might come when the devil under the archangel's feet should get the upper hand. Upon the same principle a discreet person in the early Christian times took care never to pass a prostrate statue of Jupiter without saluting it.

=One must sometimes hold a candle to the devil.=

FOOTNOTES:

[466] Fronti nulla fides. Schein betrugt.

[467] "Maxims of an Old Stager," by Judge Halliburton.

[468] Ogni lucciola non è fuoco.

[469] Adó pensas que hay tocinos, no hay estacas.

[470] Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

[471] Debajo de una mala capa hay un buen bebedor.

[472] No lo quiero, no lo quiero, mas echad lo en mi capilla.

[473] Chi biasima vuol comprare.

[474] Altissima flumina minimo sono labuntur.

[475] Il n'y a pire eau que l'eau qui dort.

[476] Le feu le plus couvert est le plus ardent.

[477] Sotto la bianca cenere sta la brace ardente.

[478] "Friends in Council."

[479] Non si tosto si fa un tempio a Dio, che il diavolo ci fabbrica una cappella appresso.

[480] Le diable chante la grande messe.

[481] Detras de la cruz esta el diablo.

[482] Por las haldas del vicario sube el diablo al campanario.

[483] O über die schlaue Sunde, die einen Engel vor jeden Teufel stellt!

[484] Couvrir son diable du plus bel ange.

[485] Le renard prêche aux poules.

[486] Quand le diable dit ses patenôtres, il vent te tromper.

[487] Ante la puerta del rezador nunca eches tu trigo al sol.

[488] Palabras de santo, y uñas de gato.

[489] Buen amigo es el gato, sino que rascuña.

[490] Muchos besan manos que quierian ver cortadas.

[491] Parece que no enturbia el agua.

[492] Rien ne ressemble plus à un honnête homme qu'un fripon.

[493] Non son tutti santi quelli che vanno in chiesa.

[494] Non tutti chi vanno in chiesa fanno orazione.

[495] Ne sont pas tous chasseurs qui sonnent du cor.

[496] Non son soldados todos los que van á la guerra.

[497] Zij zijn niet allen gelijk die met den keizer rijden.

[498]

Ægrotat dæmon, monachus tunc esse volebat;
Dæmon convaluit, dæmon ut ante fuit.

[499] Tutti i rei divengono predicatori quando stanno sotto la forca.

[500] Quando el corsario promete misas y cera, con mal anda la galera.

[501] Claudius accusat mœchos.

[502] Il frate predicava che non si dovesse robbare, e egli aveva l'occa nel scapulario.

[503] Haz lo que dice el frayle, y no lo que hace.

[504] Homo bilinguis.

[505] Porter un habit de deux paroisses.

[506] Duabus sellis sedere.

[507] Hij huilt met de wolven waarmede hij en het bosch is, en blaat met de schapen in het veld.

[508] Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

[509] Donner une chandelle à Dieu, et une au diable.

[510] Donner une chandelle à Saint Michel, et une à son diable.

OPPORTUNITY.

=What may be done at any time will be done at no time.=

"By the street of By-and-by one arrives at the house of Never" (Spanish).[511]

=Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.=

"One to-day is worth ten to-morrows" (German).[512] "To-day must borrow nothing of to-morrow" (German).[513] "When God says to-day, the devil says to-morrow" (German).[514] Talleyrand used to reverse these maxims: by never doing to-day what he could put off till to-morrow he avoided committing himself prematurely.

=Strike while the iron is hot.=

This proverb is cosmopolitan; but

=Make hay while the sun shines=

is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have had its birth only under such variable skies as ours.

=Take the ball at the hop.=

=Take time while time is, for time will away.=

=Time and tide wait for no man.=

"God keep you from 'It is too late'" (Spanish).[515] "A little too late, much too late" (Dutch).[516] "Stay but a while, you lose a mile" (Dutch).[517]

=After a delay comes a let.=

=Delays are dangerous.=

Especially in affairs of love and marriage. Therefore, "When thy daughter's chance comes, wait not her father's coming from the market" (Spanish).[518] Close with the offer on the spot. "When the fool has made up his mind the market has gone by" (Spanish).[519]

=He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.=

"Some refuse roast meat, and afterwards long for the smoke of it" (Italian).[520]

=The nearer the church, the farther from God.=

"Next to the minster, last to mass" (French).[521] "The nearer to Rome, the worse Christian" (Dutch).[522] The buyer of many books will probably read few of them, and somebody has said that he never was afraid of engaging in a controversy with the owner of a large library. Many a Londoner would never see half its lions but for the necessity of showing them to country cousins.

=The shoemaker's wife goes worst shod.=

Where the best wine is made the worst is commonly drunk. Better fish is to be had in Billingsgate than on the seacoast.

FOOTNOTES:

[511] Por la calle de despues se va á la casa de nunca.

[512] Ein Heute ist besser als zehn Morgen.

[513] Heute muss dem Morgen nichts borgen.

[514] Wenn Gott sagt: Heute, sagt der Teufel: Morgen.

[515] Guarde te Dios de hecho es.

[516] Een wenig te laat, veel te laat.

[517] Sta maar een wijl, gij verliest een mijl.

[518] Quando á tu hija le viniere su hado, no aguardes que vienga su padre del mercado.

[519] Quando el necio es acordado, el mercado es ya pasado.

[520] Tal lascia l'arrosto, chi poi ne brama il fumo. Qui refuse, muse.

[521] Près du monstier, à messe le dernier.

[522] Hoe digter bij Rom, hoe slechter Christ.

UNCERTAINTY OF THE FUTURE. HOPE.

=Man proposes, God disposes.=[523]

"There's a divinity that shapes men's ends,
Rough hew them how they will."

=He that reckons without his host must reckon again.=

=Don't reckon your chickens before they are hatched.=

Some of the eggs may be addled. Remember the story of Alnaschar.

=Sune enough to cry "chick" when it's out o' the shell.=--_Scotch._

=Gut nae fish till ye get them.=--_Scotch._

"Cry no herring till you have it in the net" (Dutch).[524] "First catch your hare," says Mrs. Glasse, and then you may settle how you will have it cooked. The Greeks and Romans thought it not wise "To sing triumph before the victory."[525] It is a rash bargain "To sell the bird on the bough" (Italian);[526] or "The bearskin before you have caught the bear" (Italian),[527] as Æsop has demonstrated. Finally, "Unlaid eggs are uncertain chickens" (German).[528]

=Praise a fair day at night.=

=It is not good praising a ford till a man be over.=

=Don't halloo till you are out of the wood.=

"Don't cry 'Hey!' till you are over the ditch" (German).[529] "Look to the end" (Latin).[530] "No man can with certainty be called happy before his death," as the Grecian sage told Crœsus. "Call me not olive till you see me gathered" (Spanish)."[531]

=To build castles in the air.=

To let imagination beguile us with visionary prospects. The metaphor is intelligible to everybody, but that in the French equivalent, "To build castles in Spain,"[532] requires explanation. The Abbé Morellet ascribes the origin of this phrase to the general belief in the boundless wealth of Spain after she had become mistress of the mines of Mexico and Peru. This is plausible but wrong, for the "Roman de la Rose," which was published long before the discovery of America, contains this line, _Lors feras chasteaulx en Espagne._ M. Quitard says that the proverb dates from the latter part of the eleventh century, when Henri de Bourgogne crossed the Pyrenees at the head of a great number of knights to win glory and plunder from the Infidels, and received from Alfonso, king of Castile, in reward for his services, the hand of that sovereign's daughter, Theresa, and the county of Lusitania, which, under his son Alfonso Henriquez, became the kingdom of Portugal. The success of these illustrious adventurers excited the emulation of the warlike French nobles, and set every man dreaming of fiefs to be won, and castles to be built in Spain. Similar feelings had been awakened some years before by the conquest of England by William of Normandy, and then the French talked proverbially of "Building castles in Albany,"[533] that is, in Albion. It is worthy of remark that previously to the eleventh century there were hardly any castles built in Christian Spain, or by the Saxons in England. The new adventurers had to build for themselves.

=Don't tell the devil too much of your mind.=

Be not too forward to proclaim your intentions. "Tell your business, and leave the devil alone to do it for you" (Italian).[534] "A wise man," Selden tells us, "should never resolve upon anything--at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot arrive at that he is ashamed. How many things did the king resolve, in his declaration concerning Scotland, never to do, and yet did them all! A man must do according to accidents and emergencies. Never tell your resolution beforehand, but when the cast is thrown play it as well as you can to win the game you are at. 'Tis but folly to study how to play size ace when you know not whether you shall throw it or no." "Muddy though it be, say not, 'Of this water I will not drink'" (Spanish).[535] "There is no use in saying, 'Such a way I will not go, or such water I will not drink'" (Italian).[536]

=There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.=

"Between the hand and the mouth the soup is often spilt" (French).[537] "Wine poured out is not swallowed" (French).[538] These three proverbs are derived from the same Greek original, the English one being nearest to it in form. A king of Samos tasked his slaves unmercifully in laying out a vineyard, and one of them, exasperated by this ill usage, prophesied that his master would never drink of the wine of that vineyard. Eager to confute this prediction, the king took the first grapes produced by his vines, pressed them into a cup in the slave's presence, and derided him as a false prophet. The slave replied, "Many things happen between the cup and the lip;" and these words became a proverb, for just then a cry was raised that a wild boar had broken into the vineyard, and the king, setting down the untested cup, went to meet the beast, and was killed in the encounter.

=God send you readier meat than running hares.=

=A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.=

=Better a wren in the hand than a crane in the air.=--_Irish_ and
_French_.[539]

Cranes were in much request for the table down to the end of the fourteenth century, if not later. "Better a leveret in the kitchen than a wild boar in the forest" (Livonian). "Better is an egg to-day than a pullet to-morrow" (Italian).[540] "One here-it-is is better than two you-shall-have-it's" (French).[541]

=Possession is nine points of the law.=

And there are only ten of them in all. Others reckon possession as eleven points, the whole number being twelve. "Him that is in possession God helps" (Italian).[542] "Possession is as good as title" (French).[543]

=I'll not change a cottage in possession for a kingdom in reversion.=

=Better haud by a hair nor draw by a tether.=--_Scotch._

=He that waits for dead men's shoes may long go barefoot.=

=He gaes lang barefoot that wears dead men's shoon.=--_Scotch._

"He hauls at a long rope who desires another's death" (French).[544] "He who waits for another's trencher eats a cold meal" (Catalan).[545]

=Live, horse, and you'll get grass.=[546]

"Die not, O mine ass, for the spring is coming, and with it clover" (Turkish). Unfortunately, "For the hungry, _wait_ is a hard word" (German);[547] and

=While the grass grows the steed starves.=

=The old horse may die waiting for new grass.=

=Hope holds up the head.=

=Hope is the bread of the unhappy.=

=Were it not for hope the heart would break.=

=He that lives on hope has a slim diet.=

Aubrey relates that Lord Bacon, being in York House garden, looking on fishers as they were throwing their net, asked them what they would take for their draught. They answered so much. His lordship would offer them only so much. They drew up their net, and in it were only two or three little fishes. His lordship then told them it had been better for them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped to have had a better draught; but, said his lordship,--

="Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper."=

"Hope and expectation are a fool's income" (Danish).[548]

=Hopes deferred hang the heart on tenter hooks.=

"He gives twice who gives quickly" (Latin);[549] and "A prompt refusal has in part the grace of a favour granted" (Latin).[550]

=All is not at hand that helps.=

We cannot foresee whence help may come to us, nor always trace back to their sources the advantages we actually enjoy. "Water comes to the mill from afar" (Portuguese).[551] On the other hand, "Far water does not put out near fire" (Italian);[552] and "Better is a near neighbour than a distant cousin" (Italian).[553] "Friends living far away are no friends" (Greek).[554]

FOOTNOTES:

[523] In French, L'homme propose, Dieu dispose; in German, Man denkt's, Gott lenkt's. The Spanish form is a little different: Los dichos en nos, los hechos en Dios.

[524] Roep geen haring eer hij in't net is.

[525] Ante victoriam canere triumphum.

[526] Vender l'uccello in sù la frasca.

[527] Non vender la pelle dell' orso prima di pigliarlo.

[528] Ungelegte Eier sind ungewisse Hünnlein.

[529] Rufe nicht "Juch!" bis du über den Graben bist.

[530] Respice finem.

[531] No me digas oliva hasta que me veas cogida.

[532] Faire des châteaux en Espagne.

[533] Faire des chasteaulx en Albanie.

[534] Di il fatto tuo, e lascia far al diavolo.

[535] Por turbia que esté, no digas desta agua no bebere.

[536] Non giova a dire per tal via non passerò, ni di tal acqua beverò.

[537] De la main à la bouche se perd souvent la soupe.

[538] Vin versé n'est pas avalé.

[539] Moineau en main vaut mieux que grue qui vole.

[540] E meglio aver oggi un uovo che domani una gallina.

[541] Mieux vaut un tenez que deux vous l'aurez.

[542] A chi è in tenuta, Dio gli aiuta.

[543] Possession vaut titre.

[544] A longue corde tire, qui d'autrui mort désire.

[545] Qui escudella d'altri espera, freda la menja.

[546] In Italian, Caval non morire, che erba da venire.

[547] Dem Hungrigen ist "Harr" ein hart Wort.

[548] Haabe og vente er Giekerente.

[549] Bis dat, qui cito dat.

[550] Pars est beneficii quod petitur si cito neges.--_Publius Syrus._

[551] De lomge vem agoa a o moinho.

[552] Acqua lontana non spegne il fuoco vicino.

[553] Meglio un prossimo vicino che un lontano cugino.

[554] Τηλου ναιοντες φιλοι ουκ εισι φιλοι.

EXPERIENCE.

=Bought wit is best.=

=Wit once bought is worth twice taught.=

=Hang a dog on a crabtree, and he'll never love verjuice.=

=A burnt child dreads the fire.=

Fear is so imaginative that it starts even at the ghost of a remembered danger. "A scalded dog dreads cold water" (French, Italian, Spanish).[555] "A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow" (Italian).[556] "Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard alarms" (Italian).[557] "One who has been bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope" (Hebrew). "The man who has been beaten with a firebrand runs away at the sight of a firefly" (Cingalese). "He that has been wrecked shudders even at still water" (Ovid).[558]

=Experience is the mistress of fools.=

She keeps a dear school, says Poor Richard; but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. "An ass does not stumble twice over the same stone" (French).[559] "Unfairly does he blame Neptune who suffers shipwreck a second time" (Publius Syrus).[560]

=He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the
rock.=--_Cornish._

=Better learn frae your neebor's scathe than frae your ain.=--_Scotch._

Wise men learn by others' harms, fools by their own, like Epimetheus, the Greek personification of after-wit.[561] "Happy he who is made wary by others' perils" (Latin).[562]

=Old birds are not to be caught with chaff.=

"Old crows are hard to catch" (German).[563] "New nets don't catch old birds" (Italian).[564]

=I'm ower auld a cat to draw a strae [straw] afore my nose.=--_Scotch._

That is, I am not to be gulled. A kitten will jump at a straw drawn before her, but a cat that knows the world is not to be fooled in that way.

=Don't tell new lies to old rogues.=

=He that cheats me ance, shame fa' him; if he cheats me twice,
shame fa' me.=--_Scotch._

=It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.=

The French have a humorous equivalent for this proverb, growing out of the following story:--A young rustic told his priest at confession that he had broken down a neighbour's hedge to get at a blackbird's nest. The priest asked if he had taken away the young birds. "No," said he, "they were hardly grown enough. I will let them alone until Saturday evening." No more was said on the subject, but when Saturday evening came, the young fellow found the nest empty, and readily guessed who it was that had forestalled him. The next time he went to confession he had to tell something in which a young girl was partly concerned. "Oh!" said his ghostly father; "how old is she?" "Seventeen." "Good-looking?" "The prettiest girl in the village." "What is her name? Where does she live?" the confessor hastily inquired; and then he got for answer the phrase which has passed into a proverb, "À d'autres, dénicheur de merles!" which may be paraphrased, "Try that upon somebody else, Mr. filcher of blackbirds."

=When an old dog barks look out.=

"An old dog does not bark for nothing" (Italian).[565] "There is no hunting but with old hounds" (French).[566]

=Live and learn.=

=The langer we live the mair ferlies [wonders] we see.=--_Scotch._

=Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.=

"Wind in the face makes a man wise" (French).[567]

=A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner.=

=It is hard to halt before a cripple.=

It is hard to counterfeit lameness successfully in presence of a real cripple. "He who is of the craft can discourse about it." (Italian).[568] "Don't talk Latin before clerks" (French),[569] or "Arabic in the Moor's house" (Spanish).[570]

=The proof of the pudding is in the eating.=

"Do not judge of the ship while it is on the stocks" (Italian).[571]

=War's sweet to them that never tried it.=

FOOTNOTES:

[555] Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide.

[556] Il can battuto dal bastone, ha paura dell' ombra.

[557] Chi della serpe è punto, ha paura della lucertola.

[558] Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas.

[559] Un âne ne trébuche pas deux fois sur la même pierre.

[560] Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit.

[561] Ὁϛ ἐπεί κακὸν ἒχε νόησε.

[562] Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.

[563] Alte Krähen sind schwer zu fangen.

[564] Nuova rete non piglia uccello vecchio.

[565] Cane vecchio non baia indarno.

[566] Il n'est chasse que de vieux chiens.

[567] Vent au visage rend un homme sage.

[568] Chi è dell'arte, può ragionar della.

[569] Il ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs.

[570] In casa del moro no hablar algarabia.

[571] Non giudicar la nave stando in terra.

CHOICE. DILEMMA. COMPARISON.

=Pick and choose, and take the worst.=

=The lass that has mony wooers aft wales [chooses] the warst.=--_Scotch._

=Refuse a wife with one fault, and take one with two.=--_Welsh._

"He that has a choice has trouble" (Dutch).[572] "He that chooses takes the worst" (French).[573]

=Of two evils choose the least.=

=Where bad is the best, naught must be the choice.=

A traveller in America, inquiring his way, was told there were two roads, one long, and the other short, and that it mattered not which he took. Surprised at such a direction, he asked, "Can there be a doubt about the choice between the long and the short?" and the answer was, "Why, no matter which of the two you take, you will not have gone far in it before you will wish from the bottom of your heart that you had taken t'other."

="There's ne'er a best among them," as the fellow said of the fox cubs.=

=As good eat the devil as the broth he's boiled in.=

=Out of the fryingpan into the fire.=

To escape from one evil and incur another as bad or worse is an idea expressed in many proverbial metaphors; _e.g._, "To come out of the rain under the spout" (German).[574] "Flying from the bull, I fell into the river" (Spanish).[575] "To break the constable's head and take refuge with the sheriff" (Spanish).[576] "To shun Charybdis and strike upon Scylla" is a well-known phrase, which almost everybody supposes to have been current among the ancients. It is not to be found, however, in any classical author, but appears for the first time in the Alexandriad of Philip Gaultier, a medieval Latin poet. In his fifth book he thus apostrophises Darius when flying from Alexander:--

"Nescis, heu! perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem;
Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim."

=Go forward, and fall; go backward, and mar all.=

"A precipice ahead; wolves behind" (Latin).[577] "To be between the hammer and the anvil" (French).[578]

=You may go farther and fare worse.=

=To be between the devil and the deep sea.=

=The one-eyed is a king in the land of the blind.=

"A substitute shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by."

"Where there are no dogs the fox is a king" (Italian).[579]

=They that be in hell think there is no other heaven.=

=It is good to have two strings to one's bow.=

=It is good riding at two anchors.=

=He is no fox that hath but one hole.=

=The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.= (Latin)[580]

=Do not put all your eggs in one basket=;

nor "too many of them under one hen" (Dutch).[581] "Hang not all upon one nail" (German),[582] nor risk your whole fortune upon one venture.

=Comparisons are odious.=

FOOTNOTES:

[572] Die keur heeft, heeft angst.

[573] Qui choisit prend le pire.

[574] Aus dem hegen unter die Traufe kommen.

[575] Huyendo del tore, cayó en el arroyo.

[576] Descalabrar el alguacil, y accogerse al corregidor.

[577] A fronte præcipitium, a tergo lupi.

[578] Être entre le marteau et l'enclume.

[579] Dove non sono i cani, la volpe è re.

[580] Mus uni non fidit antro.--_Plautus._

[581] Man moet niet te viel eijeren onder eene hen leggen.

[582] Henke nicht alles auf einen Nagel.

SHIFTS. CONTRIVANCES. STRAINED USES.

=A bad shift is better than none.=

=Better sup wi' a cutty nor want a spune.=--_Scotch._

A cutty is a spoon with a stumpy handle or none at all. It is not a very convenient implement, but it will serve at a pinch.

=A bad bush is better than the open field.=

=A wee bush is better nor nae bield.=--_Scotch._

Bield, shelter. A man's present occupation may not be lucrative, or his connections as serviceable as he could wish, but he should not therefore quit them until he has better.

=Half a loaf is better than no bread.=

=I will make a shaft or a bolt of it.=

A shaft is an arrow for the longbow, a bolt is for the crossbow.

=If I canna do it by might I'll do it by slight.=--_Scotch._

"It's best no to be rash," said Edie Ochiltree--

=Sticking disna gang by strength, but by the guiding o' the
gully.=--_Scotch._

A gully is a butcher's knife. There is a knack even in slaughtering a pig.

=There goes reason to the roasting of eggs.=

=Many ways to kill a dog besides hanging him.=

A story told by the African traveller, Richardson, supplies an apt illustration of this proverb. An Arab woman preferred another man to her husband, and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed. Her lord, instead of flying into a passion and killing her on the spot, thought a moment, and said, "I will consent to divorce you if you will promise me one thing." "What is that?" the wife eagerly asked. "You must _looloo_ to me only on your wedding day." This _looloo_ is a peculiar cry with which it is customary for brides to salute any handsome passer-by. The woman gave the promise required, the divorce took place, and the marriage followed. On the day of the ceremony the ex-husband passed the camel on which the bride rode, and gave her the usual salute by discharging his firelock, in return for which she loolooed to him according to promise. The new bridegroom, enraged at this marked preference--for he noticed that she had not greeted any one else--and suspecting that he was duped, instantly fell upon the bride and slew her. He had no sooner done so than her brothers came up and shot him dead, so that the first husband found himself amply avenged without having endangered himself in the slightest degree. "Contrivance is better than force" (French).[583] Lysander of Sparta was reproached for relying too little on open valour in war, and too much on ruses not always worthy of a descendant of Hercules. He replied, in allusion to the skin of the Nemæan beast worn by his great ancestor, "Where the lion's skin comes short we must eke it out with the fox's."

=It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog=; _or_,
=It is easy to find a stone to throw at a dog.=

It is easy for the strong to find an excuse for maltreating the weak. "On a little pretext the wolf seizes the sheep" (French),[584] or the lamb, as the fable shows. "If you want to flog your dog say he ate the poker" (Spanish).[585] "If a man wants to thrash his wife, let him ask her for drink in the sunshine" (Spanish),[586] for then what can be easier for him than to pick a quarrel with her about the motes in the clearest water?

=A handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with.=

Everything to its proper use. In Italy they say, "With the Gospel sometimes one becomes a heretic." Disraeli, and after him Dean Trench, have given to this proverb an erroneous interpretation, founded on a false reading. Their version of it is "Coll' Evangelo si diventa heretico." Here there is no qualifying "sometimes;" the proposition is put absolutely, and the two English writers consider it to be a popular "confession that the maintenance of the Romish system and the study of Holy Scripture cannot go together." It would certainly be "not a little remarkable," if it were true, "that such a confession should have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation;" but the fact is that nothing more is meant by the proverb than what the Inquisition itself might sanction. It is only a pointed way of saying that anything, however good, is liable to be used mischievously.[587]

FOOTNOTES:

[583] Mieux vaut engin que force.

[584] À petite achoison le loup prend le mouton.

[585] Para azotar el perro, que se come el hierro.

[586] Quien quiere dar palos á su muger, pidele al sol á bever.

[587] "Con l'Evangelo talvolta si diventa eretico" is the original, as given by Toriano in his folio collection of Italian proverbs, London, 1666. In Giusti's "Raccolta," &c., Firenza, 1853, we read, "Col Vangelo si può diventar eretici," to which the editor appends this gloss, "Ogni cosa può torcersi a male."

ADVICE.

=He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.=

"He who will not go to heaven needs no preaching" (German).[588] "He that will not hear must feel" (German).[589]

=Two heads are better than one.=

"Four eyes see more than two" (Spanish);[590] and "More know the pope and a peasant than the pope alone,"[591] as they say in Venice.

=Come na to the council unca'd.=--_Scotch._

"Never give advice unasked" (German).[592]

=Every one thinks himself able to advise another.=

"Nothing is given so freely as advice" (French).[593] "Of judgment every one has a stock for sale" (Italian).[594]

=He that kisseth his wife in the market-place shall have people enough
to teach him.=

"He who builds according to every man's advice will have a crooked house" (Danish).[595]

=He that speers a' opinions comes ill speed.=--_Scotch._

"If you want to get into the bog ask five fools the way to the wood" (Livonian). "Take help of many, counsel of few" (Danish).[596]

=A fool may put something in a wise man's head.=

It was a saying of Cato the elder, that wise men learnt more by fools than fools by wise men.

FOOTNOTES:

[588] Wer nicht in den Himmel will, braucht keine Predigt.

[589] Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen.

[590] Mas veen quatro ojos que dos.

[591] Sa più il papa e un contadino che il papa solo.

[592] Rathe Niemand ungebeten.

[593] Rien ne se donne aussi libéralement que les conseils.

[594] Del judizio ognun ne vende.

[595] Hvo som bygger efter hver Mands Raad, hans Huser kommer kroget at staae.

[596] Tag Mange til Hielp og Faa til Rad.

DETRACTION. CALUMNY. COMMON FAME. GOOD REPUTE.

=The smoke follows the fairest.=

The original of this is in Aristophanes: it means that

"Envy doth merit like its shade pursue."

"The best bearing trees are the most beaten" (Italian).[597] "It is only at the tree laden with fruit that people throw stones" (French).[598] "Towers," say the Chinese, "are measured by their shadows, and great men by their calumniators." An old French proverb compares detraction to dogs that bark only at the full moon, and never heed her in the quarter. "If the fool has a hump," say the Livonians, "no one notices it; if the wise man has a pimple everybody talks about it."

=Slander leaves a slur.=

"A blow of a fryingpan smuts, if it does not hurt" (Spanish).[599] The Arabs say, "Take a bit of mud, dab it against the wall: if it does not stick it will leave its mark;" and we have a similar proverb derived from the Latin:[600]--

=Throw much dirt, and some will stick.=

Fortunately

=When the dirt's dry it will rub out.=

=Ill-will never spoke well.=

The evidence of a prejudiced witness is to be distrusted. "He that is an enemy to the bride does not speak well of the wedding" (Spanish);[601] and "A runaway monk never spoke in praise of his monastery" (Italian).[602]

=Give a dog an ill name and hang him.=

="I'll not beat thee, not abuse thee," said the Quaker to his dog;
"but I'll give thee an ill name."=--_Irish._

=He that hath an ill name is half hanged.=

A French proverb declares, with a still bolder figure, that "Report hangs the man."[603] The Spaniards say, "Whoso wants to kill his dog has but to charge him with madness."[604]

=All are not thieves that dogs bark at.=

The innocent are sometimes cried down. "An honest man is not the worse because a dog barks at him" (Danish).[605] "What cares lofty Diana for the barking dog?" (Latin).[606]

=Common fame is seldom to blame.=

=What everybody says must be true.=

=It never smokes but there's a fire.=

"There's never a cry of 'Wolf!' but the wolf is in the district" (Italian).[607] "There's never much talk of a thing but there's some truth in it" (Italian).[608] This is the sense in which our droll English saying is applied:--

="There was a thing in it!" quoth the fellow when he drank the
dishclout.=

To accept the last half-dozen of proverbs too absolutely would often lead us to uncharitable conclusions; we must, therefore, temper our belief in these maxims by means of their opposites, such as this:--

=Common fame is a common liar.=

"Hearsay is half lies" (German, Italian).[609] "Hear the other side, and believe little" (Italian).[610]

=A tale never loses in the telling.=

Witness George Colman's story of the Three Black Crows.

=The devil is not so black as he is painted.=

Nor is the lion so fierce (Spanish).[611] "Report makes the wolf bigger than he is" (German).[612]

=It is a sin to belie the devil.=

=Give the devil his due.=

=If one's name be up he may lie in bed.=

"Get a good name and go to sleep" (Spanish).[613] So do many. Hence it is often better to intrust the execution of a work to be done to an obscure man than to one whose reputation is established.

=One man may better steal a horse than another look over the
hedge.=

"A good name covers theft" (Spanish).[614] "The honest man enjoys the theft" (Spanish).[615]

=A gude name is sooner tint [lost] than won.=--_Scotch._

"Once in folks' mouths, hardly ever well out of them again" (German).[616] "Good repute is like the cypress: once cut, it never puts forth leaf again" (Italian).[617]

FOOTNOTES:

[597] I megliori alberi sono i più battuti.

[598] On ne jette des pierres qu'à l'arbre chargé de fruits.

[599] El golpe de la sarten, aunque no duele, tizna.

[600] Calumniare audacter, aliquid adhærebit.

[601] El que es enemigo de la novia no dice bien de la boda.

[602] Monaco vagabondo non disse mai lode del suo monastero.

[603] Le bruit pend l'homme.

[604] Quien á su perro quiere matas, rabia le ha de levantar.

[605] Ærlig Mand er ei disværre, at en Hund göer ad ham.

[606] Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?

[607] E' non si grida mai al lupo, che non sia in paese.

[608] Non si dice mai tanto una cosa che non sia qualche cosa.

[609] Hörensagen ist halb gelogen. Aver sentito dire è mezza buggia.

[610] Odi l'altra parte, e credi poco.

[611] No es tan bravo el leon como le pintan.

[612] Geschrei macht den Wolf grösser als er ist.

[613] Cobra buena fama, y échate á dormir.

[614] Buena fama hurto encubre.

[615] El buen hombre goza el hurto.

[616] Einmal in der Leute Mund, kommt man übel wieder heraus.

[617] La buona fama è come il cipresso: una volta tagliato non riverdisce più.

TRUTH. FALSEHOOD. HONESTY.

=A lie has no legs.=

A proverb of eastern origin, meaning that a lie has no stability: wrestle with it, and down it goes. The Italians and Spaniards say, "A lie has short legs;"[618] and in the same sense "A liar is sooner caught than a cripple."[619] He trips up his own heels.

=Liars should have good memories.=

"Memory in a liar is no more than needs," says Fuller. "For, first, lies are hard to be remembered, because many, whereas truth is but one: secondly, because a lie cursorily told takes little footing and settled fatness in the teller's memory, but prints itself deeper in the hearer's, who takes the greater notice because of the improbability and deformity thereof; and one will remember the sight of a monster longer than the sight of an handsome body. Hence come sit to pass that when the liar hath forgotten himself his auditors put him in mind of the lie, and take him therein."

=Fair fall truth and daylight.=

=Speak truth and shame the devil.=

=Truth and honesty keep the crown o' the causey.=--_Scotch._

They march boldly along the middle of the roadway, which was formerly the place of honour for pedestrians in Scottish towns. "Truth seeks no corners" (Latin).[620]

=Truth may be blamed, but shall ne'er be shamed.=

"It is mighty, and will prevail" (Latin).[621] "It is God's daughter" (Spanish).[622] "Truth and oil always come to the surface" (Spanish).[623] "It takes a good many shovelfuls of earth to bury the truth" (German).[624]

=Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that use it die beggars.=

"He that speaks truth must have one foot in the stirrup," say the Turks, who are a people by no means addicted to lying. "People praise truth, but invite lying to be their guest" (Lettish). "My gossips dislike me because I tell them the truth" (Spanish).[625]

=Truth has a good face, but ragged clothes.=

=He that follows truth too near the heels will have dirt kicked in his
face.=

Is it Charles Lamb who says that a rogue is a fool with a circumbendibus?

=An honest man's word is as good as his bond.=

And better than what is called "Connaught security: three in a bond and a book oath."

FOOTNOTES:

[618] La mentira tiene cortas las piernas. Le bugie hanno corte le gambe.

[619] Si arriva più presto un bugiardo che un zoppo.

[620] Veritas non quærit angulos.

[621] Magna est veritas et prævalebit.

[622] La verdad es hija de Dios.

[623] La verdad, como el olio, siempre anda en somo.

[624] Zum Begräbniss der Wahrheit gehören viel Schaufeln.

[625] Mal me quieren mis comadres, porque les digo las verdades.

SPEECH. SILENCE.

=Speech is silvern, silence is golden.=

"Be silent, or say something that is better than silence" (German).[626] "Better silence than ill speech" (Swedish).[627] "Talking comes by nature, silence of understanding" (German).[628] "Who speaks, sows; who keeps silence, reaps" (Italian).[629]

=Silence seldom does harm.=

=Least said, soonest mended.=

The principle applies still more forcibly to writing. "Words fly, writing remains" (Latin).[630] A man's spoken words may be unnoticed, or forgotten, or denied; but what he has put down in black and white is tangible evidence against him. Therefore "Think much, say little, write less" (Italian).[631] Give Cardinal Richelieu two lines of any man's writing and he needed no more to hang him. Fabio Merto, an archbishop of the seventeenth century, has oddly remarked, "It is nowhere mentioned in the Gospels that our Lord wrote more than once, and then it was on the sand, in order that the wind might efface the writing." "Silence was never written down" (Italian);[632] and "A silent man's words are not brought into court" (Danish).[633] "Hear, see, and say nothing, if you wish to live in peace" (Italian).[634]

=A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.=

"Let not the tongue say what the head shall pay for" (Spanish).[635] "The sheep that bleats is strangled by the wolf" (Italian).[636] "He that knows nothing knows enough if he knows how to be silent" (Italian).[637]

=A fool's bolt is soon shot.=

"A foolish judge passes quick sentence" (French).[638] "He who knows little soon sings it out" (Spanish).[639]

=When a fool has spoken he has done all.=

"It is always the worst wheel that creaks" (French, Italian).[640] The shallowest persons are the most loquacious. "Were fools silent they would pass for wise" (Dutch).[641]

=Silence gives consent.=

"Silence answers much" (Dutch).[642]

=A man may hold his tongue in an ill time.=

"Amyclæ was undone by silence" (Latin).[643] The citizens having been often frightened with false news of the enemy's coming, made it penal for any one to report such a thing in future. Hence, when the enemy did come indeed, they were surprised and taken. There is a time to speak as well as to be silent.

=Spare to speak and spare to speed.=

"If the child does not cry the mother does not understand it" (Russian). "Him that speaks not, God hears not" (Spanish).[644]

FOOTNOTES:

[626] Schweig, oder rede etwas das besser ist denn Schweigen.

[627] Bättre tyga än illa tala.

[628] Reden kommt von Natur, Schweigen von Verstunde.

[629] Chi parla, semina; chi tace, raccoglie.

[630] Verba volant, scripta manent.

[631] Pensa molto, parla poco, scrivi meno.

[632] Il tacere non fu mai scritto.

[633] Tiende Mands Ord komme ei til Tinge.

[634] Odi, vedi, e taci, se vuoi viver in pace.

[635] No diga la lengua por do paque la cabeza.

[636] Pecora che bela, il lupo la strozza.

[637] Assai sa, chi non sa, se tacer sa.

[638] De fol juge brève sentence.

[639] Quien poco sabe, presto lo reza.

[640] C'est toujours la plus mauvaise roue qui crie. E la peggior ruota quella che fa più rumore.

[641] Zweegen de dwazen zij waren wijs.

[642] Zwijgen antwoordt veel.

[643] Amyclas silentium perdidit.

[644] A quien no habla, no le oye Dios.

THREATENING. BOASTING.

=The greatest barkers bite not sorest.=

=Great barkers are nae biters.=--_Scotch._

Those who threaten most loudly are not the most to be feared. "Timid dogs bark worse than they bite" (Latin),[645] was a proverb of the Bactrians, as Quintus Curtius informs us. The Turks say, "The dog barks, but the caravan passes." "What matters the barking of the dog that does not bite?" (German);[646] but "Beware of a silent dog and of still water" (Latin).[647] "The silent dog bites first" (German).[648] "A fig for our democrats!" Horace Walpole wrote in 1792. "Barking dogs never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous action. They said nothing, and did everything. Ours say everything, and will do nothing."

=Threatened folk live long.=

"Longer lives he that is threatened than he that is hanged" (Italian).[649] "More are threatened than are stabbed" (Spanish).[650] "Threatened folk, too, eat bread" (Portuguese).[651] "David did not slay Goliath with words" (Icelandic).[652] "No one dies of threats" (Dutch).[653] "Not all threateners fight" (Dutch).[654] "Some threaten who are afraid" (French).[655] "A curse does not knock an eye out unless the fist go with it" (Danish).[656] "The cat's curse hurts the mice less than her bite" (Livonian).

=Lang mint, little dint.=--_Scotch._

That is, a blow long aimed or threatened has little force; or, as the Italians and Spaniards say, "A blow threatened was never well given."[657]

=Silence grips the mouse.=

"A mewing cat was never a good mouser" (Spanish).[658] "He that threatens warns" (German).[659] "He that threatens wastes his anger" (Portuguese).[660] "The threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance" (Spanish).[661] "Threats are arms for the threatened" (Italian).[662]

=Fleying [frightening] a bird is no the way to grip it.=--_Scotch._

=The way to catch a bird is no to fling your bonnet at her.=--_Scotch._

"Hares are not caught with beat of drum" (French).[663]

=Let not your mousetrap smell of blood.=

=Never show your teeth when you can't bite.=

=Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.=

=A boaster and a liar are cousins german.=

"Believe a boaster as you would a liar" (Italian).[664] "Who is the greatest liar? He that talks most of himself" (Chinese).

=The greatest talkers are always the least doers.=

=Great boast, small roast.=

"Great vaunters, little doers" (French).[665] "It is not the hen which cackles most that lays most eggs" (Dutch).[666] "A long tongue betokens a short hand" (Spanish).[667]

=Saying gangs cheap.=--_Scotch._

=Saying and doing are two things.=

"From saying to doing is a long stretch" (French).[668] "Words are female, deeds are male" (Italian).[669] "Words will not do for my aunt, for she does not trust even deeds" (Spanish).[670]

=His wind shakes no corn.=--_Scotch._

=Harry Chuck ne'er slew a man till he cam nigh him.=--_Scotch._

Harry Chuck is understood to have been a vapouring fellow of the Ancient Pistol order, one of those who would give "A great stab to a dead Moor" (Spanish).[671] "It is easy to frighten a bull from the window" (Italian).[672] "Many are brave when the enemy flees" (Italian).[673]

=It is well said, but who will bell the cat?=--_Scotch._