Part 5

=An idle brain's the devil's workshop.=

"By doing nothing we learn to do mischief" (Latin).[301] "He that labours is tempted by one devil, he that is idle by a thousand" (Italian).[302]

=Idle dogs worry sheep.=

=Sloth is the key of poverty.=

=Lazy folks take the most pains.=

"The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas; the dog that hunts does not feel them" (Chinese).

=Who so busy as he that has nothing to do?=

The Italians compare such a one to a pig's tail that is going all day, and by night has done nothing.

=Seldom lies the deil dead by the dyke side.=--_Scotch._

You are not to expect that difficulties and dangers will vanish without any effort of your own.

FOOTNOTES:

[300] A puñadas entran las buenas hadas.

[301] Nihil agendo male agere discimus.

[302] Chi fatica è tentato da un demonio, chi sta in ozio da mille.

THRIFT.

=Cut your coat according to your cloth.=

Let your expenditure be proportioned to your means. "Let every one stretch his leg according to his coverlet" (Spanish).[303] "According to the arm be the blood-letting" (French).[304] "Meditating upon general improvement, I often think a great deal about the climate in these parts of the world; and I see that, without much husbandry of our means and resources, it is difficult for us to be anything but low barbarians. The difficulty of living at all in a cold, damp, destructive climate is great. Socrates went about with very scanty clothing, and men praise his wisdom in caring so little for the goods of this life. He ate sparingly, and of mean food. That is not the way, I suspect, that we can make a philosopher here. There are people who would deride me for saying this, and would contend that it gives too much weight to worldly things. But I suspect they are misled by notions borrowed from eastern climates. Here we must make prudence one of the substantial virtues."--(_Companions of my Solitude._)

=A good bargain is a pickpurse.=

Buy what you have no need of, and ere long you will sell your necessaries. "At a good bargain bethink you" (Italian).[305] "What is not needed is dear at a farthing" (Latin).[306] This very sensible proverb was bequeathed to us by the elder Cato; and a wiser man than Cato--Sydney Smith--has said, "If you want to make much of a small income, always ask yourself these two questions: first, do I really want it? secondly, can I do without it? These two questions, answered honestly, will double your fortune."

=Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets, put out the kitchen fire.=

=Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.=

One of the neatest repartees ever made was that which Shaftesbury administered at the feast at which he entertained the Duke of York (James II.). He overheard Lauderdale whispering the duke, "Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them." Ere the sound of the last word had died away, Shaftesbury, responding both to the words and the sense, said, "Witty men make jests, and fools repeat them." "A fat kitchen has poverty for a neighbour" (Italian).[307] "A fat kitchen, a lean will" (German).[308]

=Waste not, want not.=

=Wilful waste makes woeful want.=

=A small leak will sink a great ship.=

=Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.=

=A fool and his money are soon parted.=

=He that gets his gear before his wit will be short while master of it.=--_Scotch._

=Gear is easier gained than guided.=

=A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it.=

"Men," says Fielding (and he was an example of the truth he asserted), "do not become rich by what they get, but by what they keep." "Saving is the first gain" (Italian).[309] "Better is rule than rent" (French).[310]

=A penny saved is a penny got.=

=The best is cheapest.=

"One cannot have a good pennyworth of bad ware" (French).[311] "Much worth never cost little" (Spanish).[312] "Cheap bargains are dear" (Spanish).[313]

=Misers' money goes twice to market.=

=Keep a thing seven years and you'll find a use for it.=

=Store is no sore.=[314]

"He that buys by the pennyworth keeps his own house and another man's" (Italian).[315] Partly for this reason it is that

=A poor man's shilling is but a penny.=

=A toom [empty] pantry makes a thriftless gudewife.=--_Scotch._

=Bare walls make giddy housewives.=[316]

=All is not gain that is put into the purse.=

=What the goodwife spares the cat eats.=

=There was a wife that kept her supper for her breakfast, an' she was dead or day.=--_Scotch._

FOOTNOTES:

[303] Cada uno estiende la pierna como tiene la cubierta.

[304] Selon le bras la saignée.

[305] A buona derrata pensavi su.

[306] Quod non opus est, asse carum est.

[307] A grassa cucina povertà è vicina.

[308] Fette Küche, magere Erbschaft.

[309] Lo sparagno è lo primo guadagno.

[310] Mieux vaut règle que rente.

[311] On n'a jamais bon marché de mauvaise marchandise.

[312] Nunca mucho costó poco.

[313] Lo barato es caro.

[314] Abondance de bien ne nuit pas.

[315] Chi vive a minuto fa le spese a' suoi e agli altri.

[316] Vuides chambres font folles dames.

MODERATION. EXCESS.

=Enough is enough of bread and cheese.=

=Enough is as good as a feast.=

"A bird can roost but on one branch; a mouse can drink no more than its fill from a river" (Chinese). "He is rich enough who does not want" (Italian).[317] But the difficulty is to determine to a nicety the point at which there is neither want nor surplus. Practically there is no such point, however it may exist in theory; for

=There's never enough where nought is left.=

=Of enough men leave.=

Where all is eaten up it is pretty certain that the commons were but short. "There is not enough if there is not too much" (French).[318] Beaumarchais makes Figaro, in speaking of love, to utter the charming hyperbole which has passed into a proverb, "Too much is not enough."[319] Even without being in love, everybody must agree with Voltaire in considering

"Le superflu, chose très nécessaire."

=Better leave than lack.=

=All covet, all lose.=

=Covetousness brings nothing home.=

"It bursts the bag" (Italian).[320] Like the dog in the fable, it grasps at the shadow, and lets fall the substance. "He that embraces too much holds nothing fast" (Italian, French).[321] A statue was erected to Buffon in his lifetime, with the inscription, _Naturam amplectitur omnem_ ("He embraces all nature"). Somebody remarked upon this, "He that embraces too much," &c. Buffon heard of the sarcasm, and had the inscription obliterated.

=It is hard for a greedy eye to hae a leal heart.=--_Scotch._

Covetousness is scarcely consistent with honesty.

=Much would have more.=

=A greedy eye never had a fu' weam [belly].=--_Scotch._

"The dust alone can fill the eye of man" (Arab); _i.e._, the dust of the grave can alone extinguish the lust of the eye and the cupidity of man. Among the Arabs, the phrase, "His eye is full," signifies he possesses every object of his desire. The Germans say, "Greed and the eye can no man fill."[322] The Scotch say of a covetous person,--

=He'll get enough ae day when his mouth's fu' o' mools [mould].=

=The greedy man and the gileynoar [cheat] are soon agreed.=--_Scotch._

"The sharper soon cheats the covetous man" (Spanish).[323]

=The grace of God is gear enough=.--_Scotch._

This is the northern form of the proverb which Launcelot Gobbo speaks of as being well parted between Bassanio and Shylock. "You [Bassanio] have the grace of God, and he [Shylock] has enough."

=Too much is stark nought.=--_Welsh._

=Too much of one thing is good for nothing.=

"One may be surfeited with eating tarts" (French).[324] "Nothing too much!" (Latin.)[325]

=Better a wee fire to warm us than a meikle fire to burn us.=--_Scotch._

It is better to be content with a moderate fortune than attempt to increase it at the risk of being ruined. "Give me the ass that carries me, rather than the horse that throws me" (Portuguese).[326]

=Little sticks kindle a fire, but great ones put it out.=

=Fair and softly goes far in a day.=

=Hooly and fairly men ride far journeys.=--_Scotch._

"Who goes softly goes safely, and who goes safely goes far" (Italian).[327] "Take-it-easy and Live-long are brothers" (German).[328]

=Fools' haste is no speed.=

=The more haste the worse speed.=

This seems to be derived from the Latin adage, _Festinatio tarda est_ ("Haste is slow"). It defeats its own purpose by the blunders and imperfect work it occasions. A favourite saying of the Emperors Augustus and Titus was, _Festina lente_ ("Hasten leisurely"), which Erasmus calls the king of adages. The Germans have happily translated it,[329] and it is well paraphrased in that saying of Sir Amyas Paulet, "Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner." A thing is done "Fast enough if well enough" (Latin).[330]

=Naething in haste but gripping o' fleas.=--_Scotch._

=Nothing should be done in haste except catching fleas.=

=Haste trips up its own heels.=

"He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road" (French).[331] "Reason lies between the bridle and the spur" (Italian).[332]

=Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.=

=He that rides ere he be ready wants some o' his graith.=--_Scotch._

He leaves some of his accoutrements behind him. Perhaps one reason why "It is good to have a hatch before your door" is, that it may act as a check upon such unprofitable haste. Sydney Smith adopted a similar expedient, which he called a _screaming gate_. "We all arrived once," he said, "at a friend's house just before dinner, hot, tired, and dusty--a large party assembled--and found all the keys of our trunks had been left behind. Since then I have established a screaming gate. We never set out on our journey now without stopping at a gate about ten minutes' distance from the house, to consider what we have left behind. The result has been excellent."

=Two hungry meals make the third a glutton.=

Excess in one direction induces excess in the opposite direction.

=Soft fire makes sweet malt.=

=More flies are caught with a drop of honey than with a tun of vinegar.=

"Gentleness does more than violence" (French).[333] "The gentle calf sucks all the cows" (Portuguese).[334]

=Ower hot, ower cauld.=--_Scotch._

"It may be a fire--on the morrow it will be ashes" (Arab). Violent passions are apt to subside quickly. "Soon fire, soon ashes" (Dutch).

=A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggin [roof] o't.=--_Scotch._

No one will believe that he loves it the more for any such extravagant demonstration.

=Many irons in the fire, some will cool.=

=Too many cooks spoil the broth.=

=Ower mony greeves [overseers] hinder the wark.=--_Scotch._

"Too many tirewomen make the bride ill dressed" (Spanish).[335] "If the sailors become too numerous the ship sinks" (Arab).

=A bow o'erbent will weaken.=

=All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.=

"This nation, the northern part of it especially, is given to believe in the sovereign efficacy of dulness. To be sure, dulness and solid vice are apt to go hand in hand. But then, according to our notions, dulness is in itself so good a thing--almost a religion. Now, if ever a people required to be amused, it is we sad-hearted Anglo-Saxons. Heavy eaters, hard thinkers, often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our own, with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if it could--many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter. If ever there were a people who should avoid increasing their dulness by all work and no play, we are that people. 'They took their pleasure sadly,' says Froissart, 'after their fashion.' We need not ask of what nation Froissart was speaking."--(_Friends in Council._)

=The mill that is always grinding grinds coarse and fine together.=--_Irish._

"The pot that boils too much loses flavour" (Portuguese).[336]

=Play's gude while it is play.=--_Scotch._

Beware of pushing it to that point at which it ceases to be play. "Leave off the play (or jest) when it is merriest" (Spanish).[337] Never let it degenerate into horse play. "Manual play is clowns' play" (French).[338]

=A man may make his own dog bite him.=

It is not wise to overstrain authority, or to drive even the weakest or most submissive to desperation.

=A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.=

=Put a coward on his mettle and he'll fight the devil.=

=Make a bridge of gold for the flying enemy.=

=Extremes meet.=

A proverb of universal application in the physical as well as the moral world. Every one knows the saying of Napoleon, "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."

=Too far east is west.=

=No feast to a miser's.=

FOOTNOTES:

[317] Assai è rico a chi non manca.

[318] Assez n'y a, si trop n'y a.

[319] Trop n'est pas assez.

[320] La codicia rompe il saco.

[321] Chi troppo abbraccia, nulla stringe. Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.

[322] Den Geiz und die Augen kann niemand füllen.

[323] El tramposo presto engaña al codicioso.

[324] On se saoule bien de manger tartes.

[325] Ne quid nimis.

[326] Mais quero asno que me leve que cavallo que me derrube.

[327] Chi va piano, va sano, e chi va sano, va lontano.

[328] Gehgemach und Lebelang sind Bruder.

[329] Eile mit Weile.

[330] Sat cito si sat bene.

[331] Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent.

[332] Trà la briglia e lo speron consiste la raggion.

[333] Plus fait douceur que violence.

[334] Bezerrinha mansa todas as vaccas mamma.

[335] Muchos componedores descomponen la novia.

[336] Panella que muito ferve, o sabor perde.

[337] A la burla, dejarla quando mas agrada.

[338] Jeu de mains, jeu de vilains.

THOROUGHGOING. THE WHOLE HOG.

=In for a penny, in for a pound.=

=As good be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.=

=Ne'er go to the deil wi' a dishclout in your hand.=--_Scotch._

=Over shoes, over boots.=

"There is nothing like being bespattered for making one defy the slough" (French).[339] These proverbs are as true in their physical as in their moral application. Persons who have ventured a little way will venture further. Persons whose characters are already sullied will not be very careful to preserve them from further discredit. When Madame de Cornuel remonstrated with a court lady on certain improprieties of conduct, the latter exclaimed, "Eh! madame, laissez-moi jouir de ma mauvaise réputation" ("Do let me enjoy the benefit of my bad reputation"). "It is the first shower that wets" (Italian).[340] "It is all the same whether a man has both legs in the stocks or one" (German).[341] Honest Launce "would have one that would be a dog indeed, to be as it were a dog in all things." The author of _The Romany Rye_ learned a practical illustration of this whole-hog doctrine from an old ostler who had served in his youth at a small inn at Hounslow, much patronised by highwaymen.

"He said that when a person had once made up his mind to become a highwayman his best policy was to go the whole hog, fearing nothing, but making everybody afraid of him; that people never thought of resisting a savage-faced, foul-mouthed highwayman, and if he were taken were afraid to bear witness against him, lest he should get off and cut their throats some time or other upon the roads; whereas people would resist being robbed by a sneaking, pale-visaged rascal, and would swear bodily against him on the first opportunity; adding that Abershaw and Ferguson, two most awful fellows, had enjoyed a long career, whereas two disbanded officers of the army, who wished to rob a coach like gentlemen, had begged the passengers' pardon, and talked of hard necessity, had been set upon by the passengers themselves, amongst whom were three women, pulled from their horses, conducted to Maidstone, and hanged with as little pity as such contemptible fellows deserved."

=Neck or nothing, for the king loves no cripples.=

Either break your neck or come off safe: broken limbs will make you a less profitable subject.

=Either a man or a mouse.=

Either succeed or fail outright. _Aut Cæsar, aut nullus._

=Either win the horse or lose the saddle.=

=Either make a spoon or spoil a horn.=

=He that takes the devil into his boat must carry him over the sound.=

=He that is embarked with the devil must make the passage along with him.=

"He that is at sea must either sail or sink" (Danish). "He that is at sea has not the wind in his hands" (Dutch).[342]

=Such things must be if we sell ale.=

This was the good woman's reply to her husband when he complained of the exciseman's too demonstrative gallantry.

=If you would have the hen's egg you must bear with her cackling.=

=The cat loves fish, but she is loath to wet her feet.=

It is to this proverb that Lady Macbeth alludes when she upbraids her husband for his irresolution:--

"Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poor cat in the adage."

"There's no catching trouts with dry breeches" (Portuguese).[343]

=Almost and hardly save many a lie.=

"Perhaps hinders folk from lying" (French).[344]

=Almost was never hanged.=

"All but saves many a man" (Danish).[345] "Almost kills no man" (Danish).[346] "Almost never killed a fly" (German);[347] for

=An inch of a miss is as good as a mile.=

This is the original reading of the proverb, and better than that which is now more current: "A miss is as good as a mile." The French say, "For a point Martin lost his ass,"[348] and thereby hangs a tale. An ecclesiastic named Martin, Abbot of Asello, in Italy, wished to have this Latin line inscribed over the gate of the abbey:--

PORTA PATENS ESTO. NULLI CLAUDARIS HONESTO.

"Gate be open. Never be closed against an honest man."

It was just the time when the long-forgotten art of punctuation was beginning to be brought into use again. Abbot Martin was not skilled in this art, and unfortunately he employed a copyist to whom it was equally unknown. The consequence was, that the point which ought to have followed the word _esto_ was placed after _nulli_, completely changing the meaning of the line, thus:--

PORTA PATENS ESTO NULLI. CLAUDARIS HONESTO.

"Gate be open never. Be closed against an honest man."

The pope, being informed of this unseemly inscription, deposed Abbot Martin, and gave the abbey to another. The new dignitary corrected the punctuation of the unlucky line, and added the following one:--

UNO PRO PUNCTO CARUIT MARTINUS ASELLO.

That is to say, "For a single point Martin lost his Asello." But _Asello_, the name of the abbey, being Latin for _ass_, it happened, in the most natural way in the world, that the line was translated thus: "For a point Martin lost his ass," and this erroneous version passed into a proverb. Other accounts of its origin have been given; but that which we have here set down is confirmed by the fact that in Italy they have also another reading of the proverb, namely, _Per un punto Martino perse la cappa_ ("For a point Martin lost the cope"); that is, the dignity of abbot typified in that vestment.

FOOTNOTES:

[339] Il n'est que d'être crotté pour affronter le bourbier.

[340] La primiera pioggia è quel che bagna.

[341] Mit beiden Beinen im Stock, oder mit Einem, ist gleichviel.

[342] D'e op de zee is heeft de wind niet in zijn handen.

[343] Naô se tomaô trutas a bragas enxutas.

[344] Peut-être empêche les gens de mentir.

[345] Nær hielper mangen Mand.

[346] Nærved slaaer ingen Mand ihiel.

[347] Beinahe bringt keine Mücke um.

[348] Pour un point Martin perdit son âne.

WILL. INCLINATION. DESIRE.

=Where there's a will there's a way.=

=A wight man ne'er wanted a weapon.=--_Scotch._

"A good knight is not at a loss for a lance" (Italian).[349] A man of sense and resolution will make instruments of whatever comes to his hands; and truly "He is not a good mason who refuses any stone" (Italian).[350] "He that has a good head does not want for hats" (French).[351]

=Where the will is ready the feet are light.=[352]

"The willing dancer is easily played to" (Servian).[353] "The will does it" (German).[354] "A voluntary burden is no burden" (Italian).[355]

"The labour we delight in physics pain."

"A joyous heart spins the hemp" (Servian); and, as Autolycus sings,--

"A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a."

=One man may lead the horse to the water, but fifty can't make him drink.=

"You cannot make an ass drink if he is not thirsty" (French).[356] "It is bad coursing with unwilling hounds" (Dutch).[357] "A thing done perforce is not worth a rush" (Italian).[358]

=None so deaf as he that will not hear.=

=Nothing is impossible to a willing mind.=

"Madame," said M. de Calonne to a lady who solicited his aid in a certain affair, "if the thing is possible, it is done; and if it is impossible, it shall be done."[359]

=Good-will should be taken in part payment.=

=Take the will for the deed.=

"Gifts are as the givers" (German).[360] "The will gives the work its name." "The will is the soul of the work" (German).[361]

=Hell is paved with good intentions.=

A great moral conveyed in a bold figure. What is the worth of virtuous resolutions that never ripen into action? In the German version of the proverb a slight change greatly improves the metaphor, thus: "The way to perdition is paved with good intentions."[362] A Scotch proverb warns the weak in will, who are always hoping to reform and do well, that

=Hopers go to hell.=

=As the fool thinks, the bell tinks.=

We are all prone to interpret facts and tokens in accordance with our own inclinations and habits of thought. It was not the voice of the bells that first inspired young Whittington with hopes of attaining civic honours; it was because he had conceived such hopes already that he was able to hear so distinctly the words, "Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London." "People make the bells say whatever they have a mind" (French).[363] In a Latin sermon on widowhood by Jean Raulin, a monk of Cluny of the fifteenth century, there is a story which Rabelais has told again in his own way. Raulin's version is this:--

A widow consulted her parish priest about her entering into a second marriage. She told him she stood in need of a helpmate and protector, and that her journeyman, for whom she had taken a fancy, was industrious and well acquainted with her late husband's trade. "Very well," said the priest, "you had better marry him." "And yet," rejoined the widow, "I am afraid to do it, for who knows but I may find my servant become my master?" "Well, then," said the priest, "don't have him." "But what shall I do?" said the widow; "the business left me by my poor dear departed husband is more than I can manage by myself." "Marry him, then," said the priest. "Ay, but suppose he turns out a scamp," said the widow; "he may get hold of my property, and run through it all." "Don't have him," said the priest. Thus the dialogue went on, the priest always agreeing in the last opinion expressed by the widow, until at length, seeing that her mind was actually made up to marry the journeyman, he told her to consult the church bells, and they would advise her best what to do. The bells were rung, and the widow heard them distinctly say, "Do take your man; do take your man."[364] Accordingly she went home and married him forthwith; but it was not long before he thrashed her soundly, and made her feel that instead of his mistress she had become his servant. Back she went to the priest, cursing the hour when she had been credulous enough to act upon his advice. "Good woman," said he, "I am afraid you did not rightly understand what the bells said to you." He rang them again, and then the poor woman heard clearly, but too late, these warning words: "Do not take him, do not take him."[365]

=Wilful will do it.=

=A wilfu' man maun hae his way.=--_Scotch._

=He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar.=--_Scotch._