Part 6

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.=