Ex Lit C. K. PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. PROVEEBS OF ALL NATIONS, COMPARED, EXPLAINED, AND ILLUSTRATED. WALTER K. KELLY. " Even the best proverb, though often the expression of the widest experience in the choicest language, can be thoroughly misapplied. It cannot embrace the whole of the subject, and apply in aU cases lilce a mathematical formula. Its wis.limi lies in the ear of the hearer." FKIENDS IN COUNCIL. LONDON: W. KENT & CO. (LA.TE D. BOGUE^ 86, FLEET STKEET, AND PATERNOSTER ROW. 1859. WINCIIRSTER: PREFACE. ENGLISH literature, in most departments the richest in Europe, is yet the only one in which there has hitherto existed no comprehensive collection of proverbs adapted to general use. To supply this deficiency is the object of the present attempt. Dean Trench, in the preface to his "Proverbs and their Lessons," adverts to " the immense number and variety of books bearing on the subject;" but adds, that among them all he knows not one which appears to him quite suitable for all readers. " Either," he says, "they include matter which cannot fitly be placed before all or they address themselves to the scholar alone ; or, if not so, are at any rate inaccessible to the mere English reader or they contain bare lists of proverbs, with no endeavour to compare, illustrate, or explain them or, if they do seek to explain, they yet do it without attempting to sound the depths or measure the real significance of that which they attempt to unfold." My own experience in this department of literature is entirely in accordance with these views. I have, there- fore, during the preparation of the following pages, kept constantly before my mind the Dean of Westminster's precise statement of things to be done, and things to be" avoided. British proverbs for the most part form the basis of this collection. They are arranged according to their import and affinity, and under each of them are grouped translations of their principal equivalents in other lan- guages, the originals being generally appended in foot- notes. By this means are formed natural families of proverbs, the several members of which acquire increased 2015181 significance from the light they reflect on each other. At the same time, a source of lively interest is opened for the reader, who is thus enabled to observe the manifold diversities of form which the same thought assumes, as expressed in different times and by many distinct races of men ; to trace the unity in variety which pervades the oldest and most universal monu- ments of opinion and sentiment among mankind ; and to verify for himself the truth of Lord Bacon's well- known remark, that "the genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs." Touching as they do upon so wide a range of human concerns, proverbs are necessarily associated with written literature. Sometimes they are created by it ; much oftener they are woven into its texture. Personal anecdotes turn upon them in many instances ; and not unfrequently they have figured in national history, or have helped to preserve the memory of events, manners, usages, and ideas, some of which have left little other record of their existence. From the wealth of illustra- tion thus inviting my hand, I have sought to gather whatever might elucidate and enliven my subject with- out overlaying it. In this way I hope to have over- come the general objection alleged by Isaac Disraeli against collections of proverbs, on the ground of their " unreadableness." It is true, as he says, that " taking in succession a multitude of insulated proverbs, their slippery nature resists all hope of retaining one in a hundred;" but this remark, I venture to believe, does not apply to the present collection, in which proverbs are not insulated, but presented in orderly, coherent groups, and accompanied with appropriate accessories, so as to fit them for being considered with some continuity of thougjit. CONTENTS. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. - - 1 PARENTS AND CHILDREN '- 20 YOUTH AND AGE - 29 NATURAL CHARACTER - 32 HOME - - 36 PRESENCE, ABSENCE, SOCIAL INTERCOURSE 39 FRIENDSHIP - - 42 CO-OPERATION, RECIPROCITY, SUBORDINATION - 47 LUCK, FORTUNE, MISFORTUNE - - 51 FORETHOUGHT, CARE, CAUTION 61 PATIENCE, FORTITUDE, PERSEVERANCE - 66 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS - 71 THRIFT - - 73 MODERATION, EXCESS - 77 THOROUGHGOING, THE WHOLE HOG 84 WILL, INCLINATION, DESIRE - 89 CUSTOM, HABIT, USE - 96 SELF-CONCEIT, SPURIOUS PRETENSIONS 101 SELF-LOVE, SELF-INTEREST, SELF-RELIANCE . - , 104 SELFISHNESS IN GIVING, SPURIOUS BENEVOLENCE 113 INGRATITUDE - . -, - - 116 PACK THE MOTE AND THE BEAM - 119 FAULTS, EXCUSES, UNEASY CONSCIOUSNESS I'-i'-i FALSE APPEARANCES AND PKETENCES, HYPOCRISY, DOUBLE DEALING, TIME-SERVING - 12? OPPORTUNITY - 138 UNCERTAINTY OF THE FUTURE, HOPE 141 EXPERIENCE - - 148 CHOICE, DILEMMA, COMPARISON 152 SHIFTS, CONTRIVANCES, STRAINED USES - - 155 ADVICE 159 DETRACTION, CALUMNY, COMMON FAME, GOOD REPUTE - 161 TRUTH, FALSEHOOD, HONESTY 165 SPEECH, SILENCE - 168 THREATENING, BOASTING - 171 SECRETS - 177 RETRIBUTION, PENAL JUSTICE - 182 WEALTH, POVERTY, PLENTY, WANT - 187 BEGINNING AND END - 191 OFFICE - 195 LAW AND LAWYERS 200 PHYSIC, PHYSICIANS, MAXIMS RELATING TO HEALTH 20tf CLERGY >( it> SEASONS, WEATHER '^11 NATIONAL AND LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS, LOCAL ALLUSIONb ',! I << PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. This is an Englishwoman's proverb. The Italian, sisterhood complain that " In men every mortal sin is venial; in women every venial sin is mortal." 1 These are almost the only proverbs relating to women in which justice is done to them, all the rest being mani- festly the work of the unfair sex. If a woman were as little as she is good, A peascod would make her a gown and a hood. This is Ray's version of an Italian slander. 2 The Germans say, " Every woman would rather be hand- 1 A gli uomini ogni peccato mortale e veniale, alle donne ogni veniale mortale. 2 Se la donna fosse piccola come e buona, la minima foglia la farebbe una veste e una corona. 3 PROVERBS OF ALT. NATIONS- some than good;" 1 and that, indeed, "There are only two good women in the world : one of them is dead, and the other is not to be found." 2 The French, in spite of their pretended gallantry, have" the coarseness to declare that " A man of straw is worth a woman of gold ; " 3 and even the Spaniard, who sometimes speaks words of stately courtesy towards the female sex, advises you to " Beware of a bad woman, and put no trust in a good one." 4 " The crab of the wood is sauce very good For the crab of the sea; But the wood of the crab is sauce for a drab, That will not her husband obey." A spaniel, a woman, and a walnut tree, The more they 're beaten the better they be. There is Latin authority for this barbarous distich.* The Italians say, " Women, asses, and nuts require rough hands." 6 Much wiser is the Scotch adage, Te may ding the deil into a wife, but yell ne'er ding him out o' her. 1 Jedes Weib will lieber scbbn als fromm sein. 2 Es giebt nur zwei gnte Weiber auf der Welt: die Eine ist gestorben, die Andere nicht zu finden. * Un homme de paille. vaut une femme d'or. 4 De la mala muger te guarda, y de la buena no fies nada. * Nux, asinus, mulier simili stint lege ligata, Htec tria nil recte faciunt si verbera cesssnt. * Donne, asini, e noci voglion le niani atroci. WOMEN, I.OVK, MARBrAGX, ETC- Take your wife's first advice, and not her second. The French make the rule more general " Take a woman's first advice, &c." There is good reason for this if the Italian proverb is true, " Women are wise offhand, and fools on reflection."* They have less logical minds than men, but surpass them in quickness of intuition, having, sajs Dean Trench, what Mon- taigne ascribes to them iu a remarkable word, I'esprit pnme-sautier the leopard's spring, which takes its prey, if it be to take it at all, at the first bound." " Summer- sown corn and women's advice turn out well once in seven years,"* say the Germans ; and the Spaniards hold that " A woman's counsel is no great thing, but he who does not take it is a fool." 4 In Servia they say, "It is sometimes right even to obey a sensible wife ; " and they tell this story in elucidation of the proverb. A Herzegovinian once asked a Kadi whether a man ought to obey his wife, whereupon the Kadi answered that he needed not to do so. The Herze- govinian then continued, "My wife pressed me this morning to bring thee a pot of beef suet, so I have done well in not obeying her." Then said the Kadi, " Verily, it is sometimes right even to obey a sensible 1 Trends le premier conseil d'nne femme, et non le second. . * La donna savia e all' impeusata, alia pensata e matta. 3 Sommersaat und Weiberrath gerath alle sieben Jalire einroal. 4 El consejo de la muger es poco, y quien no le toma es loco. PROVEKBS OF ALL NATIONS. It's nae mair ferlie to see a woman greet than to see a guse gang barefit. Scotch. That is, it is no more wonder to see a woman cry than to see a goose go barefoot. " Women laugh when they can, and weep when they will." 1 This is a French proverb, translated by Ray. Its want of rhyme makes it probable that it was never naturalised in England. The Italians say, " A woman complains, a woman 's in woe, a woman is sick, when she likes to be so," 5 and that " A woman's tears are a fountain of craft." 3 A woman's mind and winter wind change oft. " Women are variable as April weather " (German). 4 " Women, wind, and fortune soon change " (Spanish). 5 Francis I. of France wrote one day with a diamond on a window of the chateau of Chambord, " Souvent femme varie : Bien fou qui s'y fie." " A woman changes oft : Who trusts her is right soft." His sister, Queen Margaret of Navarre, entered the room as he was writing the ungallant couplet, and, 1 Femme rit quand elle pent, et pleure quand elle veut. 2 Donna si lagna, donna si duole, donna s'ammala quando la mole. 3 Lagrime di donna, fontana di malizia. Weiber sind veranderlich wie Aprilwetter. * Muger, viento, y ventura presto se muda. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 5 protesting against such a slander on her sex, she declared that she could quote twenty instances of man's fickleness. Francis retorted that her reply was not to the point, and that he would rather hear one instance of woman's constancy. " Can you mention a single instance of her inconstancy ? " asked the Queen of Navari'e. It happened that a few weeks befoi'e this conversation a gentleman of the court had been thrown into prison upon a serious charge ; and his wife, who was one of the queen's ladies in waiting, was reported to have eloped with his page. Certain it was that the page and the lady had fled, no one could tell whither. Francis triumphantly cited this case ; but Margaret warmly defended the lady, and said that time would prove her innocence. The king shook his head, but promised that if, within a month, her character should be re-established, he would break the pane on which the couplet was written, and grant his sister whatever boon she might ask. Many days had not elapsed after this, when it was discovered that it was not the lady who had fled with the page, but her husband. During one of her visits to him in prison they had exchanged clothes, and he was thus enabled to deceive the jailer, and effect his escape, while the devoted wife remained in his place. Margaret claimed his pardon at the king's hand, who not only granted it, but gave a grand fete and tournament to celebrate this instance of conjugal affection. He also destroyed the pane of glass, but the calumnious saying inscribed on it has unfortunately survived. PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. A woman's tongue wags like a lamb's tail A woman's strength is in her tongue. - ww*. Arthur could not tame a woman's tongue. Weiih, " Three women and three geese make a market," 1 according to the Italians. " Foxes are all tail, and women are all tongue ; " at least, it is so in Auvergne. 2 " All women are good Lutherans," say the Danes ; " they would rather preach than hear mass." 3 " A woman's tongue is her sword, and she does not let it rust," is a saying of the Chinese. Swine, women, and bees are not to be turned. " Because " is a woman's answer. And not so unmeaning an answer as flippant critics imagine. It is an example of that much-admired figure of speech, aposiopesis, and means because I will have it so. " What a woman wills, God wills " (French). 4 " Whatever a woman will she can " (Italian). 5 " The man 's a fool who thinks by force or skill To stem the torrent of a woman's will ; For if she will, she will, you may depend on't, And if she won't, she won't, and there 's an end on't." 1 Tre oche e tre donne farm' un mercato. 2 Les femmes sont faites de langue, comme les renards d queue. 3 Alle Quinder ere gode Lutherske, de predike heller end de hore Messe. 4 Ce que femme vent, Dieu le veut. * Se la donna vuol, tutto la puol. WOMEN', LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 7 The cunuing of the sex is equal to their obstinacy. " Women know a point more than the devil " (Italian). 1 What wonder, then, if "A bag of fleas is easier to keep guard over than a woman?" (German.) 2 The wilfulness of woman is pleasantly hinted at in the Scotch proverb, " ' Gie her her will, or she '11 burst,' quoth the gudeman when his wife was dinging him." A woman conceals what she does not know. Women and bairns lein [conceal] what they kenna. Scotch. " To a woman and a magpie tell what you would speak in the market-place " (Spanish). 3 Hotspur says to his wife, " Constant you are, But yet a woman, and for secrecy No lady closer ; for I well believe Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, And so far I will trust thee, gentle Kate." But, if there is truth in proverbs, men have no right to reproach women for blabbing. A woman can at least keep her own secret. Try her on the subject of her age. 1 Le donne sanno un punto piu del diavolo. 2 Kin Sack voll Flohe ist leichter zu hiiten wie eiii Weib. 3 A la rnuger y a la picuza loque dirias en la plaza. 8 PROVERBS OF AT,L NATIONS Beauty draws more than oxen. " One hair of a woman draws more than a bell- rope " (German). 1 " And beauty draws us with a single hair. " Beauty buys no beef. Beauty is no inheritance. In spite of these curmudgeon maxims, let no fair maid despair whose face is her fortune, for " She that is born a beauty is born married " (Italian).' Beauty is but skin deep. . The saying itself is no deeper. It is physically un- true, for beauty is not an accident of surface, but a natural result and attribute of a fine organisation. A man may sneer, like Ralph Nickleby, at a lovely face, because he chooses rather to see " the grinning death's head beneath it ; " but Ralph was a heartless villain, and that is only another name for a fool. " Beauty is one of God's gifts," says Mr. Lewes, " and every one really submits to its influence, whatever platitudes he may think needful to issue .... How, think you, should we ever have relished the immortal fragments of Greek literature, if our conception of Greek men and Greek women had been formed by the contemplation of figures such as those of Chinese art ? Would any 1 Ein Frauenhaar zieht mehr als em Glockenseil. 2 Chi nasce Leila, nasce maritata. WOMEN, LOVE, MARKIAGE, ETC. pulse have throbbed at the Labdacidan tale had the descendants of Labdacus risen before the imagination with obese rotundity, large ears, gashes of mouths, eyes lurching upwards towards the temples, and no nose to speak of? Could we with any sublime emotions picture to ourselves Fo-Ti on the Promethean rock, or a Congou Antigone wailing her unwedded death ? " Fine feathers make fine fowls. Therefore, " If you want a wife choose her on Saturday, not on Sunday" (Spanish); 1 i.e., choose her in undress. " No woman is ugly when she is dressed " (Spanish); 2 at least, she is not so in her own opinion. " The swarthy dame, dressed fine, decries the fair one " (Spanish). 3 The fairer the hostess the fouler the reckoning. "A handsome landlady is bad for the purse " (French) ; 4 for this among other reasons that " If the landlady is fair, the wine too is fair " (German). 6 A bonny bride is sune buskit Scotch. Buskit dressed. She needs little adornment to enhance her charms. 1 Si quieres hemhra, escoge la el sabado, y no el domingo. 2 Compuesta no hay muger fea. 3 Baza compuesta la Uanca denuesta. 4 Belle hotesse, c'est un mal pour la bourse. 5 1st die Wirtliin schon, ist auch der Wein schb'n. 10 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. Joan is as good as my lady in the dark. When candles are out all cats are grey. " Blemishes are unseen by night," 1 says an ancient Latin proverb ; and the Greeks held that " When the lamp is removed all women are alike." 2 Opinions may differ on that point, but all agree that " The night Shows stars and women in a better light." Hence the Italian warning to choose ' Neither jewel, nor woman, nor linen by candlelight;" 3 and the French hyperbole, " By candlelight a goat looks a lady."" If Jack is in love he is no judge of Jill's beauty. "Nobody's sweetheart is ugly" (Dutch). 5 "Never seemed a prison fair or a mistress foul " (French). 6 " Handsome is not what is handsome, but what pleases " (Italian). 7 " He whose fair one squints says she ogles " (German). 8 " ' Red is Love's colour,' said the wooer to his foxy charmer " (German). 9 1 Nocte latent mendse. 2 Avxvov dp6(i>Tos iraaa -y 3 Ne gioia, ne donna, ne tela al lume de candela. 4 A la charidelle la chevre semble demoiselle. 6 Niemands lief is lelijk. 6 II n'est point de belles prisons ni de laides amours. 7 Non e hello quel che e bello, ma quel che piace. 8 Wessen Huldin schielt, der sagt sie liebaugele. 9 " Roth ist die Farbe der Liebe," sagte der Buhler zu seinem fuchs farbenen Schatz. WOMKN, LOVE, MAUK1AOE, tTC. 1 1 Love is blind. Blind to all imperfections in the beloved object ; blind also to everything around it to facts, conse- quences', and prudential considerations. " People in love think that other people's eyes are out " ( Spanish). 1 It is hard to keep flax from the lowe [fire].- Sspr amato. ronvien ch'il ami. 7 Amor e il vero pre/.io, per che si compra amor. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 15 ing: "Love knows no measure ' M there are no bounds to its trustfulness and devotion ; " Love warms more than a thousand fires;" 2 "He who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides;" 3 "Love rules without law; " * " Love rules his kingdom without a sword ; " 5 "Love knows not labour;"* "Love is master of all arts." 7 The French have one proverb on the sovereign might of love, 8 which they borrowed from the sublime phrase in the Song of Solomon, " Love is stronger than death ; " and another expressed in the language of their chivalric forefathers, " Love subdues all but the ruffian's heart." 9 Marry in haste and repent at leisure. This proverb probably came to us from Italy ; 10 but, alas ! it happens too often in all countries that " Wed- lock rides in the saddle, and repentance on the croup " (French). 11 There is a joke in the Menagiana not un- like this : A person meeting another riding on horse- back with his wife behind him, applied to him the 1 Amor non conosce misura. 2 Scalda piii amore che mille fuochi. a Chi ha 1'amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a' franchi. 4 Amor regge senza legge. 5 Amor regge il suo regno senza spada. 6 Amor non conosce travaglio. 7 Di tutte le arti maestro fc amore. 8 Amour et mort, rien n'est plus fort. Amour soumet tout hormis coeur de felon. 10 Chi si marita in fretta, stenta adagio. 11 Fiansailles vont en selle, et repentailles en croupe. 10 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. words of Horace " Post equitem sedet atra cura." l " Marriage is a desperate thing," quoth Selden. " The frogs in ^Esop were extremely wise ; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well because they could not get out again." Consider well, then, what you are about before you put yourself in a condition to hear it said, You have tied a knot with your tongue you cannot undo with your teeth. Some g'o so far as to say that "No one marries but repents " (French). 2 The Spaniards exclaim, in lan- guage which reminds us of the custom of Dunmow, " The bacon of paradise for the married man that has not repented!" 3 Better wed over the mixon than over the moor. The mixou is the heap of manure in the farmyard. The proverb means that it is better not to go far from home in search of a wife advice as old as the Greek poet Hesiod, who has a line to this effect : " Marry, in preference to all other women, one who dwells near thee." But a more specific meaning has been assigned to the English proverb by Fuller, and after him by Ray and Disraeli. They explain it as being a maxim peculiar to Cheshire, and intended to dissuade can- 1 Black care sits behind the horseman. 2 Nul ne se marie qui ne s'en repente. 3 El tocino de paraiso para el casado no arrepiso. WOMEN, LOVE, MARBIAGE, ETC. 17 didates for matrimony from taking the road to London, which lies over the moorland of Staffordshire. " This local proverb," says Disraeli, " is a curious instance of provincial pride, perhaps of wisdom, to induce the gentry of that county to form intermarriages, to prolong their own ancient families and perpetuate ancient friendships between them." This is a mistake, for the proverb is not peculiar to Cheshire, or to any part of England. Scotland has it in this shape : Better woo o'er midden nor o'er moss. And in Germany they give the same advice, and also assign a reason for it, saying, " Marry over the mixon, and you will know who and what she is." * The same principle is expressed in different forms in other lan- guages, e.g., " Your wife and your nag get from a neighbour" (Italian). 2 "He that goes far to marry goes to be deceived or to deceive" (Spanish). 3 The politic Lord Burleigh seems to have regarded this " going far to deceive " as a very proper thing to be done for the advancement of a man's fortune. In his " Advice to his Son " he says, " if thy estate be good, match near home and at leisure ; it weak, far off and quickly." There is an ugly cunning in that word quickly. Burleigh's advice is quite in the spirit of the 1 Heirathe iiber den Mist, so weisst du wer sie 1st. 2 La moglie e il ronzino piglia dal vicino. 3 Quien lejos se va a casar, o va enganado, o va a enganar. C 18 PROVEKBS OF ALL NATIONS. French fortune hunter's adage, " In marriage cheat who can." * He that loseth his wife and sixpence hath lost a tester. " He that loseth his wife and a farthing hath a great loss of his farthing " (Italian). 2 In Italy also, and in Portugal, it is said that " Grief for a dead wife lasts to the door ; " 3 and even in Provence, the land of the troubadours, they have a rhyme to this effect : " Two good days for a man in this life : "When he weds and when he buries his wife." 4 Nor do the wives of Provence appear to be delighted with their conjugal lot. Having lost their youthful plumpness through the cares and toils of wedlock, they oddly declare that " If a stockfish became a widow it would fatten." 5 A Spanish woman's opinion of matri- mony is thus expressed : " ' Mother, what sort of a thing is marriage ? ' ' Daughter, it is spinning, bearing children, and weeping.' " ' 1 En mariage trompe qui peut. 2 Chi perde" la moglie e tin quattrino, ha gran perdita del quattrino. 3 Doglia di moglie morta dura fino alia porta. Dor de mulher morta, dura ate a porta. 4 Dous houns jours a Thome snr terro : Quand pren mouilho, e quand 1'enterro. 5 Se uno marlusse venie veouso, serie grasso. 6 Madre, que cosa es casar ? Hija, hilar, parir y llorar. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 19 Better a tocher [dower] in her than wi' her. Scot<-h. A man's best fortune or his worst is his wife. " The day you marry you kill or cure yourself " (Spanish). 1 " Use great prudence and circumspection," says Lord Burleigh to his son, " in choosing thy wife, for from thence will spring all thy future good or evil ; and it is an action of life like unto a stratagem of war, wherein a man can err but once." The gude or ill hap o' a gude or ill life Is the gude or ill choice o' a gude or ill wife. Scotch. There is a Spanish rhyme much to the same effect : " Him that has a good wife no evil in life that may not be borne, can befall. Him that has a bad wife no good thing in life can chance to, that good you may call." 2 Put your hand in the creel, and take out either an adder or an eel That 's matrimony. " In buying horses and taking a wife, shut your eyes and commend yourself to God " (Italian). 3 " Marriages are not as they are made, but as they turn out " (Italian). 4 1 El dia que te casas, o te matas o te sanas. 2 A quien tiene buena muger, ningun raal le puede venir, que no sea de sufrir. A quien tiene mala muger, ningun bien le puede venir, que bien se puede decir. 3 Comprar cavalli e tor moglie, serra gli occhi e raccomandati a Dio. 4 I matrimoni sono, non come si fanno, ma come riescono. 20 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. There 's but ae gude wife in the country, and ilka man thinks he 's got her. -Scotch. It is a pleasant delusion while it lasts, and it is not incurable. Instances of complete recovery from it are A man may woo where he will, but must wed where he 's weird. Scotch. That is, where he is fated to wed. This is exactly equivalent to the English saying, Marriages are made in heaven, the meaning of which Dean Trench appears to me to mistake, when he speaks with admiration of its " religious depth and beauty." I cannot find in it a shadow of religious sentiment. It simply implies that it is not forethought, inclination, or mutual fitness that has the largest share in bringing man and wife together. More efficient than all these is the force of circum- stances, or what people vaguely call chance, fate, fortune, and so forth. In the French version of the adage, " Marriages are icritten in heaven," l we find the special formula of Oriental fatalism ; and fatalism is everywhere the popular creed respecting marriage. Hence, as Shakspeare says, " The ancient saying is no heresy Hanging and wiving go by destiny." " But now consider the old proverbe to be true y saieth : that marriage is destinie." Hall's Chronicles. 1 Les manages sont ecrits dans le ciel. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 21 If marriages be made in heaven some had few friends there. Scotch, Ne'er seek a wife till ye hae a house and a fire burning. Scotch. More belongs to a bed than four bare legs. Marriage is honourable, but housekeeping is a shrew. Sweetheart and honey-bird keeps no house. " Marry, marry, and what about the housekeeping? " (Portuguese). 1 " Remember," said a French lady to her son, who was about to make an imprudent match, " remember that in wedded life there is only one thing which continues every day the same, and that is the necessity of making the pot boil." " He that marries for love has good nights and bad days " (French). 2 " Before you marry have where to tarry," (Italian); 3 and remember that A wee house has a wide throat. It costs something to support a family, however small ; and " It is easier to build two hearths than always to have a fire on one " (German). 4 'Tis hard to wive and thrive both in a year. Who weds ere he be wise shall die ere he thrive. Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing. This is so far true as it discommends long engage- ments. 1 Casnr, casar, e que do governo ? 2 Qui se marie par amours, a bonnes nuits et mauvais jours. 3 Innanzi al maritnre, liabbi 1'habitare. 4 Es ist leichter zwei Hercle bauen, als auf eiuem immer Feuer haben. 22 PROVERBS OF ALL NATFONS. 'Tis time to yoke when the cart comes to the capples [i.e., horses] . Cheshire. That is, it is time to many when the woman wooes "the man. This provincial word " capple " is Irish also, and is allied to, but not derived from, the Latin caballus. It is probably one of the few words of the ancient Celtic tongue of Britain which were adopted into the language of the Saxon con- querors. Husbands are in heaven whose wives chide not. Whether or not that heaven is ever found on earth is a question which each man must decide from his own experience. " He that has a wife has strife," * say the French, and the Italian proverb-mongers take an unhandsome advantage of the fact that in their language the words " wife " and " woes " differ only by a letter. 2 St. Jerome declares that " Whoever is free from wrangling is a bachelor." 3 A smoky chimney and a scolding wife are two bad companions. The Scotch couple together "A leaky house and a scolding wife," in which they follow Solomon : " A con- tinual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike." 4 " It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house." 5 1 Qui femme a, noise a. 2 Clii ha moglie, ha doglie. 3 Qui non litigat coelebs est. 4 Prov. xxvii. 15. * Prov. xxi. 19. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 23 A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd [scolding noise] will sune mak a man run to the door. Scotch. Of the continental versions of this proverb the Spanish 1 seems to me the best, and next to it the Dutch. 2 It 's a sair reek where the gude wife dings the gude man. Scotch. " A man in my country," says James Kelly, " coming out of his house with tears on his cheeks, was asked the occasion. He said ' there was a sair reek in the house ; ' but, upon further inquiry, it was found that his wife had beaten him." "It is a sad house where the hen crows and the cock is mute " (Spanish). 3 Though we have not this proverb in English, we have its spirit embodied in one word, HENPECKED, which is peculiar to ourselves. The grey mare is the better horse. The wife wears the breeches. " A hawk's marriage : the hen is the better bird " (French). 4 Marry above your match and you get a master. " In the rich woman's house she commands always, and he never " (Spanish). 5 " Who takes a wife for her 1 Humo y gotera, y la muger parlera, echan el hombre de su casa fuera. 2 llook, stank, en kwaade wijven zijn die de mans uit de Imizen drijven. 3 Triste es la casa donde la gallina canta y el gallo calla. + Manage d'epervier: la femelle vaut mieux que le male. 5 En la casa de muger rica, ella mauda siempre, y el nunca. 24 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. dower turns his back on freedom" (French). 1 But every married man is in this plight, for " He that has a wife has a master." " " He that 's not sensible of the truth of this proverb," says James Kelly, " may blot it out or pass it over." " As the good man saith, so say we ; But as the good woman saith, so it must be." Wedding and ill wintering tame both man and beast. " You will marry and grow tame " (Spanish). 3 He that marries a widow and two daughters marries three stark thieves. He that marries a widow and two daughters has three back doors to his house. And " The back door is the one that robs the house " (Italian). 4 Never marry a widow unless her first husband was hanged. Else the burden of an old Scotch song, " Ye '11 never be like mine auld gudeman," will be dinned in your ears day and night. He that marries a widow will have a dead man's head cast in his dish. Happy is the wife who is married to a motherless son. " Uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus," says 1 Qui prend nne femme pour sa dot a la liherte tourne le dos. 2 In French, Qui prend femme, prend maitre. 3 Casaras y amansaras. 4 La porta di dietro e quella che ruba la casa. WOMEN, LOVE, MARRIAGE, ETC. 25 Terence ; arid this is the common testimony of ex- perience in all ages and countries. " The husband's mother is the wife's devil " (German, Dutch). 1 " As long as I was a daughter-in-law I never had a good mother-in-law, and as long as I was a mother-in-law I never had a good daughter-in-law " (Spanish). 2 " The mother-in-law forgets that she was a daughter-in-law " (Spanish). 3 " She is well married who has neither mother-in-law nor sister-in-law " (Spanish). 4 Men, too, do not always regard their wives' mothers with tender affection, and some of the many bitter sayings against mothers-in-law seem to be common to both sexes. Such is this queer Ulster rhyme : '' Of all the ould women that ever I saw, Sweet bad luck to my mother in-law." Also these Low German : " There is no good mother- in-law but she that wears a green gown ;" 5 i.e., that is covered with the turf of the churchyard ; " The best mother-in-law is she on whose gown the geese feed;" 6 and this Portuguese, " If my mother-in-law dies, I will fetch somebody to flay her." 7 1 Des Mamies Mutter ist der Frau Teufel. Een mans moer is de duivel op den vloer. 2 En quanto fue nuera, nunea tuve buena suegra, y en quanto fue suegra, unnca tuve buena nuera. 3 No se acuerda la suegra que fue nuera. 4 Aquella es bien casada, que no tiene suegra ni cunada. 5 Es ist kerne gut Swigar, danne die einen griinen Rok an hat. 8 Die beste Swigar ist die auf deren Rok die Ganse waiden. 7 Se iriinha sogra more, buscare quern a estolle. M PARENTS AND CHILDREN. Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. " Little children and headaches great children and heartaches " (Italian). 1 Nevertheless, " He knows not what love is that has not children " (Italian). 2 It is a wise child that knows his own father. Happily, as a French sage remarks, " One is always somebody's child, and that is a comfort." 3 "The child names the father ; the mother knows him " (Livonian). The mother knows best if the child be like the father. The mither's breath is aye sweet. Scotch. This proverb, which belongs exclusively to Scotland, appears to me .even more " exquisitely graceful and tender " than that German and French proverb so justly admired by Dean Trench, " Mother's truth keeps constant youth." 4 "There is no mother like the 1 Fanciulli piccioli, dolor di testa ; fanciulli grandi, dolor di cuore. 2 Chi non ha figliuoli non sa che cosa sia amore. 3 On cst toujours le fils de quelqu'un ; cela console. 4 Muttertreu wircl taglicli neu. Tcndresse maternelle toujours se renouvelle. PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 27 mother that bore us " (Spanish). 1 " The child that gets a stepmother gets a stepfather also " (Danish). 2 The crow thinks her own bird the fairest. "Every mother's child is handsome" (German). 3 " No ape but swears he has the finest children " (German). 4 " If our child squints, our neighbour's child has a cast in both eyes " (Livonian). As the old cock crows so crows the young ; or, As the old cock crows the young cock learns. If the mare have a bald face the filly will have a blaze. Trot feyther, trot mither, how can foal amble ? Scutch. Children generally follow the example of their parents, but imitate their faults more surely than their virtues. Thus, A light-heeled mother makes a heavy-heeled daughter. Unless the mother transfers a part of her household cares to the daughter, the latter will grow up in sloth and ignorance of good housewifery. " A tender-hearted mother rears a scabby daughter " ^French, Italian). 5 A child may have too much of its mother's blessing. Her foolish fondness may spoil it. 1 No hay tal madre como la que pare. 2 Det Barn der t'aaer Stivmotler, faaer ogsaa Stifvader. 3 Jeder Mutter Kind ist sclion. Kein AfF, er sclnvort, er habe die schonsten Kinder. 5 M6re piteuse fait sa Me rogneuse. La madre pietosa fa la figliuola tignosa. 2 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. The worst store is a maid unbestowed. Welsh. " A house full of daughters is a cellar full of sour beer" (Dutch). 1 Chaucer says, " He that hath more smocks thnn shirts in a Lucking Had need be a man of good forelooking." " Marry your son when you will, and your daughter \vhen you can " (Spanish). 2 My son is my son till he 's got him a wife ; My daughter 's my daughter all the days of her life. This is a woman's calculation. She knows that a son-in'-law will submit to her sway more tamely than a daughter-in-law. Little pitchers hare long ears. " What the child hears at the fire is soon known at the minster " (French). 3 Children and fools tell truth. And tell it when it were better left untold. " These terrible children ! " (French.) 4 Children and fools have merry lives. They quickly forget past sorrows, and are careless of the future. Children suck the mother when they are young, and the father when they are old. 1 Een huis vol dochters is een kelder vol znnr bier. 2 Casa el hijo quando quisieres, y la hijn quando pudieres. 3 Ce qne 1'enfant oit au foyer, est bientost connu jusqu'au monstier. 4 Ces enfants terribles ! YOUTH AND AGE. A ragged colt may make a good horse.* An untoward boy may grow up into a proper man. This may be understood either in a physical or a moral sense. " There is no colt but breaks some halter " (Italian), 1 otherwise it is good for nothing (French). 2 "Youth comes back from far" (French). 3 Do not despair of it as lost, though it runs a mad gallop ; something of the sort is to be expected of all but those preternaturally sedate youths who are born, as the author of " Eothen" says, with a Chifney bit in their mouths from their mother's womb. A man at five may be a fool at fifteen. In the days when cock-fighting was a fashionable pastime, game chickens that crowed too soon or too often were condemned to the spit as of no promise or ability. " A lad," says Archbishop Whateley, " who has to a degree that excites wonder and admiration the * Spanish : De polro sarnoso buen caballo hermoso. Ger- man : Aus klattrigen Fohlen werden die schonsten Hengste. 1 Non c'e polledro che non rompa qualche cavezza. 2 Kien ne vaut poulain s'il ne rompt son lien. 3 Jeunesse revient de loin. 80 PROVERBS OF AT.L NATIONS. character and demeanour of an intelligent man of mature years, will probably be that and nothing more all his life, and will cease accordingly to be anything remarkable, because it was the precocity alone that ever made him so. It is remarked by greyhound fanciers that a well-formed, compact-shaped puppy never makes a fleet dog. They see more promise in the loose-jointed, awkward, and clumsy ones. And even so there is n kind of crudity and unsettledness in the minds of those young persons who turn out ultimately the most eminent." Soon ripe soon rotten. " Late fruit keeps well " (German). 1 It is better to knit than to blossom. Orchard trees may blossom fairly, yet bear no fruit. It early pricks that will be a thorn. Some indications of future character may be seen even in infancy. The child is father of the man. Soon crooks the tree that good gambrel will be. A gambrel (from the Italian fjamka, a leg) is a crooked piece of wood, on which butchers hang the carcasses of beasts by the legs. As the twig is bent the tree 's inclined. Best to bend while it is a twig. It is not easy to straighten in the oak the crook that grew in the sapling. Gaelic. 1 Spat Obst liegt lange. YOUTH AND AGE. 31 " What the colt learns in youth he continues in old age" (French). 1 "What youth learns, age does not forget" (Danish). 2 Reckless youth maks ruefu' eilcL Scotch. " If youth knew ! if age could ! " (French). 3 1 Ce qne poulain prend en jeunesse, il le continue en vieillesse. 2 Det Ung nemmer, Gammel ei glemmer. 3 Si jeunesse savait ! si vieillesse pouvait ! NATURAL CHAEACTEE. What 's bred in the We will never be out of the flesh. What is innate is not to be eradicated by force of education or self-discipline : these may modify the outward manifestations of a man's nature, but not transmute that nature itself. What belongs to it "lasts to the grave" (Italian). 1 The ancients had several proverbs to the same purpose, such as this one, which is found in Aristophanes " You will never make a crab walk straight forwards " and this Latin one, which is repeated in several modern languages : " The wolf changes his coat, but not his disposition ; " 2 he turns grey with age. The Spaniards say he " loses his teeth, but not his inclinations." 3 "What is sucked in with the mother's milk runs out in the shroud " (Spanish). 4 Horace's well-known line, " Naturam expellas furca taraen usque recurret " " Though you cast out nature with a fork, it will still return " has very much the air of a proverb versified. 1 Chi 1'ha per natura, fin alia fossa dura. 2 Lupus pilura mutat non mentem. 3 El lobo pierde los dientes, mas no los mientes. 4 Lo que en la leche se mama, en la mortaja se derrama. NATURAL CHARACTER. 33 The same thought is better expressed in a French line which has acquired proverbial currency : ." Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop." " Drive away nature, and back it comes at a gallop." This line is very commonly attributed to Boileau, but erroneously. The author of it is Chaulieu (V). The Orientals ascribe to Mahomet the saying, " Believe, it thou wilt, that mountains change their places, but believe not that men change their dispositions." Cat after kind. " What is born of a hen will scrape " (Italian). 1 " What is born of a cat will catch mice " (French, Italian). 2 This proverb is taken from the fable of a cat transformed into a woman, who scandalised her friends by jumping from her seat to catch a mouse. " A good hound hunts by kind " (French). 3 " It is kind father to him," as the Scotch say. " Good blood cannot lie " (French) ; 4 its generous instincts are sure to display themselves on fit occasions. On the other hand, " The son of an ass brays twice a day." 5 We need not say what people that stroke of grave humour belongs to. 1 Chi nasce di gallina, convien che rozzuola. 2 Chi naquit chat, court apres les souris. Chi nasce di gatta sorice piglia. 3 Bon chien chasse de race. 4 Bon sang ne peut mentir. * 5 El hijo del asino dos veces rozna al dia. D '.} i PROVERBS OV ALL NATIONS. Drive a cow to the ha' and she 11 run to the byre. Scotch. She will be more at home there than in the di-awing-room. " A sow prefers bran to roses " (French). 1 " Set a frog on a golden stool, and off it hops again into the pool " (German). 2 There's no making a silk purse of a sow's ear; or, " A good arrow of a pig's tail " (Spanish) ; 8 or, " A sieve of an ass's tail " (Greek). A carrion kite will never make a good hawk. 4 An inch o' a nag is worth a span o' an aver. Srntch. A kindly aver will never make a good nag. Scotch. An aver is a cart horse. One leg of a lark is worth the whole body of a kite. A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat. Bray a fool in a mortar, he 11 be never the wiser. " To wash an ass's head is loss of suds " (French). 3 " The malady that is incurable is folly " (Spanish). 6 There 's no washing a blackamoor white. " Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog " (French).? 1 Truie aime mieux bran que roses. 2 Setz einen Frosch auf goldnen Stnbl, Er hupft doch wieder in den Pfulil. * De rabo de puerco nunca buen virote. * On ne saurait faire d'une bnse un epervier. 5 A laver la tete d'un ane, on perd sa lessive. * El mal que no se puede sanar, es locura. * Lavez chien, peignez chien, toujours n'est chien que chien. NATURAL CHARACTER. 35 A hog in armour is still but a hog. An ape is an ape, a varlet 'a a varlet, Though he be clad in silk and scarlet. There 's no getting white flour out of a coal-sack. " Whatever the bee sucks turns to honey, and what- ever the wasp sucks turns to venom " (Portuguese). 1 Eagles catch no flies. Literally translated from a Latin adage 2 much used by Queen Christina, of Sweden, who affected a superb disdain for petty details. The Romans had another proverbial expression for the same idea : " The praetor takes no heed of very small matters," 3 for his was a superior court, and did not try cases of minor im- portance. Our modern lawyers have retained the classical adage, only substituting the word " law " for " praetor." They say, " De minimis non curat lex," which might, perhaps, be freely translated, " Lawyers don't stick at trifles." 1 Qnanto clmpa a abelha, mel torna, e quanto a aranlia, efonha. 2 Aquila non capit muscas. * De minimis non curat praetor. 36 HOME. Home is home, be it ever so homely. Hame is a homely word. Scotch. " Homely " and " hamely " are not synonymous, but imply different ideas associated with home. The one means plain, unadorned, fit for every-day use ; the other means familiar, pleasant, dear to the affections. " To every bird its nest is fair " (French, Italian). 1 " East and west, at home the best " (German). 2 " The reek of my own house," says the Spaniard, " is better than the fire of another's." 3 The same feeling is ex- pressed with less energy, but far more tenderly, in a beautiful Italian proverb, which loses greatly by trans- lation : " Home, my own home, tiny though thou be, to me thou seemest an abbey." 4 Two others in the same language ' are exquisitely tender : " My home, my mother's breast." 5 How touching this simple juxta- 1 A tout oiseau son nid est beau. A ogni uccello suo nido ( bello. 2 Ost und West, dabeim das Best. 3 Mas vale bumo de mi casa que fuego de la agena. Casa mia, casa mia, per piecina che tu sia, tu mi sembri una badia. 4 Casa mia, mamma mia. im- position of two loveliest things ! Again, " Tie me hand and foot, and throw me among my own." l Every cock is proud on his own dunghill. A cock is crouse on his ain midden. Scotch. This proverb has descended to us from the Romans : it is quoted by Seneca. 2 Its medieval equivalent, Gallus cantat in suo sterquilinio, was probably present to the mind of the first Napoleon when, in reply to those who advised him to adopt the Gallic cock as the imperial cognizance, he said, " No, it is a bird that crows on a dunghill." The French have altered the old proverb without improving it, thus : " A dog is stout on his own dunghill." 3 The Italian is better: " Every dog is a lion at home/' 4 The Portuguese give us the counterpart of this adage, saying, " The fierce ox grows tame on strange ground." 5 An Englishman's house is his castle. But sanitary reformers tell him truly that he has no right to shoot poisoned arrows from it at his neigh- bours. The French say, " The collier (or charcoal burner) is master in his own house," 6 and refer the origin of the proverb to a hunting adventure of 1 Legami mani e piei, e gettami tra' miei. Gallus in suo sterquilinio plurimum potest. 3 Ciiien sur son fumier est hardi. 4 Ogni cane e leone a casa sua. 5 boi bravo na terra albeia se faz manso. 6 Cliarbounier est niaitre cbez soi. 38 PEOVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. Francis I., which is related by Blaise cle Montluc. Having outridden all his followers, the king took shelter at nightfall in the cabin of a charcoal burner, whose wife he found sitting alone on the floor before the fire. She told him, when he asked for hospitality, that he must wait her husband's return, which he did, seating him- self on the only chair the cabin contained. Presently the man came in, and, after a brief greeting, made the king give him up the chair, saying he was used to sit in it, and it was but right that a man should be master iu his own house. Francis expressed his entire con- currence in this doctrine, and he and his host supped together very amicably on game poached from the royal forest. " Man," said Ferdinand VII. to the Duke of Medina Celi, the premier nobleman of Spain, who was helping him on with his great coat, " man, how little you are!" "At home I am great," replied the dwarfish grande (grandee). " When I am in my own house I am a king " (Spanish). 1 1 Mientras en mi casa estoy, rey me soy. PRESENCE. ABSENCE. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. Long absent, soon forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind. " Friends living far away are 110 friends" (Greek). "He that is absent will not be the heir" (Latin). 1 " Absence is love's foe : far from the eyes, far from the heart" (Spanish). 2 " The dead and the absent have no friends " (Spanish). 3 " The absent are always in the wrong" (French). 4 "Absent, none without fault; present, none without excuse" (French). 5 Against this string of proverbs, all running in one direction, we may set off the Scotch saying, They are aye gude that are far aw a' ; and this French one : " A little absence does much good.'' 6 Without affirming too absolutely that 1 Absens hseres non erit. 2 Auseucia enemiga de amor : quan lejos cle ojo tau lejos de corazou. 3 A muertos y a idos no hay mas amigos. Les absents ont toujours tort. 5 Absent n'est point sans coulpe, ni present sans excuse. 6 Un peu d'absence fait grand bien. 40 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. Friends agree best at a distance which was a proverb before Rochefoucauld wrote it down among his maxims we may admit that " To preserve friendship a wall must be put between " (French) ; l and that " A hedge between keeps friendship green " (Ger- man). 2 " Love your neighbour, but do not pull down the hedge" (German). 3 "There are certain limits of sociality, and prudent reserve and absence may find a place in the management of the tenderest relations." (Friends in Council?) This lesson the Spaniards em- body in two proverbs, bidding you " Go to your aunt's (or your brother's) house, but not every day." 4 Friends meet with more pleasure after a short separation. "The imagination," says Montaigne, " embraces more fer- vently and constantly what it goes in search of than what one has at hand. Count up your daily thoughts, and you will find that you are most absent from your friend when you have him with you. His presence relaxes your attention, and gives your thoughts liberty to absent themselves at every turn and upon every occasion." Better be unmannerly than troublesome. I wad rather my friend should think me framet than fashious. Scotch. That is, I would rather my friend should think me 1 Pour amide garder il faut pRrois entreposer. 2 Ein Zaun dazwisclien mag die Liebe erfrisclien. 3 Liebe deinen Nachbar, rdss aber den Zaun nicbt ein. 4 A casa de tu tia, mas no cada dia. A casa de tu berniano, mas no cada serano. PRESENCE, ABSENCE, SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 41 strange (fremd, German) than troublesome (fdcheux, French). Too much familiarity breeds contempt. Ower-meikle hameliness spoils gude courtesy. Hameliness means familiarity. See " Hame is a hamely word," page 36. Leave welcome ahint you. Scntck. Do not outstay your welcome.. " A guest and a fish stink on the third day " (Spanish). 1 Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest " Aweel, kinsman," says Rob Roy to the baillie, "ye ken our fashion foster the guest that comes, further him that maun gang." " Let the guest go before the storm bursts " (German). 2 If the badger leaves his hole the tod will creep into it. Scutch. " He that quits his place loses it " (French). 3 " Whoso absents himself, his share absents itself " (Arab). 1 El huesped y el pece a tres tlias hiede. 2 Lass den Gnst ziehen eh das Gewiltei' ausbricht. 3 Qui quitte sa place la perd. 4-2 FRIENDSHIP. He is my friend who grinds at my mill That is, who is serviceable to me a vile sentiment if understood too absolutely ; but the proverb is rather to be interpreted as offering a test by which genuine friendship may be distinguished from its counterfeit. ' Deeds are love, and not fine speeches " (Spanish). 1 " If you love me, John, your acts will tell me so " (Spanish). 2 " In the world you have three sorts of friends," says Chamfort ; " your friends who love you, your friends who do not care about you, and your friends who hate you." Kindness will creep where it canna gang. Scutch. It will find some way to manifest itself, in spite of all hinderances. As Burns sings, " A man may hae an honest heart, Though poortith hourly stare him ; A man may tak a neebor's part, Yet no hae cash to spare him." Friendship canna stand aye on ane side. Scotch. It demands reciprocity. " Little presents keep up 1 Obras son amores, que no buenas razones. 2 Se bien me quieres, Juan, tus obras me lo diran . FRIENDSHIP. 43 friendship " (French); 1 aiid so do mutual good offices. Note that the French proverb speaks of little presents such thiugs as are valued between friends, not for their intrinsic value, but as tokens of good-will. Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him. Take time to know him thoroughly. Sudden friendship, sure repentance. Never trust much to a new friend or an old enemy. Nor even to an old friend, if you and he have once been at enmity. " Patched-up friendship seldom becomes whole again " (German). 2 " Broken friend- ship may be soldered, but never made sound " (Spanish). 3 " A reconciled friend, a double foe (Spanish). 4 " Beware of a reconciled friend as of the devil " (Spanish). 5 Asmodeus, speaking of his quarrel with Paillardoc, says, " They reconciled us, we em- braced, and ever since we have been mortal enemies." Old friends and old wine are best. " Old tunes are sweetest, and old friends are surest," says Claud Halcro. " Old be your fish, your oil, your friend " (Italian). 6 Les petits cadeaux entretienuent 1'aimlie. Gettickte Freundsehaft \vird selten wieder ganz. Aniigo quebrado soldado, mas nunca sauo. Amigo reconciliado, amigo dublado. De amigo reconciliado, guarte del como del diablo. Cum inimico nemo in gra.iam tuto redit. Pub. Syrns. 6 Pesce, oglio, e amico vecehio. 44 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. One enemy is too many, and a hundred friends are too few. Enmity is unhappily a much more active principle than friendship. Save me from my friends ! An ejaculation often called forth hy the indiscreet zeal which damages a man's cause whilst professing to serve it. The full form of the proverb " God save me from nay friends, I will save myself from my enemies " is almost obsolete amongst us, but is found in most languages of the continent, and is applied to false friends. Bacon tells us that " Cosmos, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends that we read we ought to forgive our enemies ; but we do not read we ought to forgive our friends." A full purse never lacked friends. An empty purse does not easily find one. To say that " The best friends are in the purse " (German), 1 is, perhaps, putting the matter a little too strongly ; but, at all events, " Let us have florins, and we shall find cousins" (Italian). 2 "The rich man does not know who is his friend." 3 This Gascon proverb may be taken in a double sense: the rich man's friends are more than he can number ; he cannot be sure of the sincerity of any of them. " He who is everybody's friend is 1 Die heste Frennde sleeken im Beutel. 2 Abbiatno pur fiorini, che trovaremo cugini. 3 Riche home non sap qui ly es amyg. FRIENDSHIP. 45 either very poor or very rich" (Spanish). 1 " Now that I have a ewe and a lamb everybody says to me, ' Good day, Peter' " (Spanish). 2 Everybody looks kindly on the thriving man. A friend in need is a friend indeed. But, as such friends are rare, the Scotch proverb counsels not amiss, Try your friend afore ye need him. On the other hand, " He that would have many friends should try few of them" (Italian). 3 "Let him that is wretched and beggared try everybody, and then his friend" (Italian). 4 A friend is never known till one have need. " A friend cannot be known in prosperity, and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity" (Ecclesiasticus). " A sure friend is known in a doubtful case " (Ennius).* When good cheer is lacking, friends will be packing. " The bread eaten, the company departed" (Spanish). 6 " While the pot boils, friendship blooms" (German). 7 " In time of prosperity friends will be plenty ; In time of adversity not one in twenty." 1 Quien te todos es amigo, 6 es muy pobre, 6 es muy rico. a Ahora que tengo oveja y borrego, todos me dicen: En hora buena estais, Pedro. s Chi vuol aver amici assai, ne provi pochi. 4 Cbi e misero e senza denari, provi tutti, e poi 1'amico. s Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur. 6 El pan comido, la compania deshecha. 7 Siedet der Topf, so bliihet die Freundschaft. 46 PROVERBS OF AIJ- NATIONS. No longer foster, no longer friend. Help yourself, and your friends will like you. " Give, out that you have many friends, and believe that you have few" (French). 1 By that means you will not expose yourself to he bitterly disappointed, and you will secure the favours which the world is ready to bestow on those who seem to have least need of them. A friend at court is better than a penny in the purse. Kissing goes by favour. Every one makes it his business to " Take care of Dowb." " They are rich," therefore, " who have friends" (Portuguese, Latin). 2 "It is better to have friends on the market than money in one's coffer" (Spanish). 3 " Every one dances as he has friends in the ball-room" (Portuguese). 4 "There's no living without friends " (Portuguese). 5 1 11 fnnt se dire beauconp d'amis, et s'en croire pen. Aquellos sao ricos que tern amigos. Ubi amici, ibi opes. a Mas vnlen nmigos en la pla?a que dineros en el area. 4 Cada hum dan^a como tern os amigos na sala. 6 Na6 se pode viver sem amigos. 47 CO-OPERATION. RECIPROCITY. SUBORDINATION. One beats the bush and another catches the birds. Sic vos non vobis. The proverb is derived from an old way of fowling by torchlight in the winter nights. A man walks along a lane, carrying a bush smeared with birdlime and a lighted torch. He is preceded by another, who beats the hedges on both sides and starts the birds, which,- flying towards the light, are caught by the limed twigs. An imprudent use of this proverb by the Duke of Bedford, regent of France during the minority of our Henry VI., has given it historical celebrity. When the English were besieging Orleans, the Duke of Burgundy, their ally, intimated his desire that the town, when taken, should be given over to him. The regent replied, " Shall I beat the bush and another take the bird ? No such thing." These words so offended the duke that he deserted the English at a time when they had the greatest need of his help to resist the efforts of Charles VII. Here the proverb was used to imply an unfair divi- sion of spoil, or what was called, in the duchy of Bret-ague, "A Montgomery distribution all on one side, 48 PUOVERBS OF AIJ, NATIONS. and nothing ou the other." l (The powerful family of Montgomery were in the habit of taking the lion's share.) It may also be applied to the manner in which confederates play into each other's hands. " The dog that starts the hare is as good as the one that catches it " (German). 2 The receiver is as bad as the thief. " He sins as much who holds the sack as he who puts into it " (French). 3 " He who holds the ladder is as bad as the burglar " (German). 4 Lie for him and he Tl swear for you. Speir at Jock Thief if I be a leal man. - Scotch. "Ask my comrade, who is as great a liar as myself (French). 5 The lion had need of the mouse. The grateful mouse in the fable rescued her bene- factor from the toils by gnawing the cords. " Soon or late the strong needs the help of the weak " (French). 6 1 Partage de Montgomery tout d'un cote, rien de 1'autre ; like " Irish reciprocity, all on one side." 2 Der Huncl, der den Hasen ausspiirt, ist so gut wie der ihn fangt. 3 Autnnt peche celui qui tient le sac que celui qui met dedans. 4 Wer die Leiter halt, ist so schuldig wie der Dieb. 5 Demandez-le a mon compagnon, qui est aussi menteur que inoi. 8 Ou tot ou tard, ou pres ou loin, Le fort du faihle a besoin. CO-OPERATION, RECIPROCITY, SUBORDINATION. 49 " Every ten years one man has need of another " (Italian). 1 Two to one are odds at football. " Not Hei'cules himself could resist such odds ?> (Latin). 2 " Three helping each other are as good as six " (Spanish). 3 " Three hrothers, three castles " (Italian). 4 " Three, if they unite against a town, will ruin it" (Arab). When two ride the same horse one must ride behind. And, furthermore, he must be content to journey as the foremost man pleases. "He who rides behind does not saddle when he will " (Spanish). 5 The question of precedence is settled in this case by another English proverb : He that hires the horse must ride before. The man who hires or owns the horse is Capital, and Labour must ride behind him. In other cases the question will often have to be decided by force. You stout and I stout, who shall carry the dirt out ? " You a lady, I a lady, who is to drive out the sow ? " (Gallegan). 6 1 Ogni dieci anni UH uomo ha bisogno dell' altro. 2 Ne Hercules contra duos. 3 Ayudandose tres, para peso de seis. Tre fratelli, tre castelli. s Quien tras otro cabulga, no ensella quando quiere. 6 Vos dona, yo dona, quen botara a porca foro ? E 50 PROVERBS OF AIX NATIONS. Tarry breeks pays no fraught. Scutch. Pipers don't pay fiddlers. "One barber shares another" (French). 1 "One hand washes tbe other" (Greek). 2 " One ass scratches another " (Latin). 3 Ka me, ka thee.- Scotch. Turn about is fair play. Giff-gaff is good fellowship. Like master like man. " The beadle of the parish is always of the opinion of his reverence the vicar " (French). 4 1 Un barbier rase 1'autre. * X.ttp X fl P a vivrei. * Asinus asinum fricat. 4 Le bedeau de la paroisse est toujours de 1'avis de monsieur le cure. 51 LUCK. FORTUNE. MISFORTUNE. Luck is all. A desperate doctrine, based on that one-sided view of human affairs which is expressed in Byron's parody of a famous passage in Addison's Cato : " 'Tis not in mortals to command success ; But do you more, Sempronius don't deserve it; And take my word you'll have no jot the less." " The worst pig gets the best acorn " (Spanish). 1 " A good bone never falls to a good dog" (French); 2 and " The horses eat oats that don't earn them " (German). 3 But this last proverb has also another application. " Other rules may vary," says Sydney Smith, " but this is the only one you will find without exception that in this world the salary or reward is always in the inverse ratio of the duties performed." 1 Al mas ruin puerco la mejor bellota. 2 A un bon chien n'echet jamais un bon os. 3 Die Rosse fressen den Haber die ilm nicht verdienen. 52 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. The more rogue the more luck. The devil's children have the devil's luck. But their prosperity is false and fleeting. " The devil's meal runs half to bran " (French). 1 God sends fools fortune. It is to this version_of the Latin adage, Fortuna f civet fatuis (" Fortune favours fools"), that Touchstone alludes in his reply to Jacques : " ' No, sir,' quoth he ; ' Call me not fool till Heaven hath sent me fortune.' " The Spaniards express this popular belief by a striking figure : " The mother of God appears to fools."* The Germans say, " Fortune and women are fond of fools ; " 3 and the converse of this holds good likewise, since " Fortune makes a fool of him whom she too much favours" (Latin); 4 and so do women sometimes. When we consider how much what is called success in life depends on getting into one of " the main grooves of human affairs," we can account for the common remark that blockheads thrive better in the world than clever people, and that " Jack gets on by his stupidity " (German). 5 " It is all the difference of going by rail- La farine du diable s'en va moitie en s6n. A los bobos se les aparece la madre de Dios. Gliick und Weiber haben die Narren lieb. Fortuna niniiuni quem favet stultum facit. Hans kommt durch seine Dummheit fort. LUCK, FORTUNE, MISFORTUNE. 53 way and walking over a ploughed field, whether you adopt common courses or set up one for yourself " which is most likely to be done hy people of superior abilities. " You will see * * * * most inferior persons highly placed in the army, in the church, in office, at the bar. They have somehow got upon the line, and have moved on well, with very little original motive powers of their own. Do not let this make you talk as if merit were utterly neglected in these or other professions only that getting well into the groove will frequently do instead of any great excellence." 1 With this explanation we are prepared to admit that there is some reason in the Spanish adage, " God send you luck, my son, and little wit will serve your turn." 2 It is better to be lucky than wise. It is better to be born lucky than rich. Hap and ha'penny is warld's gear eneuch. Scotch. " The lucky man's bitch litters pigs" (Spanish). 3 Happy go lucky. The happy ducky] man canna be harried. Scotch. The lucky man cannot be ruined. Seeming disasters will often prove to be signal strokes of good fortune for him. Such a man will have cause to say, " The 1 " Companions of my Solitude." 2 Ventura te de Dios, hijo, que poc.o saber te basta. 3 A quien Dios quiere bien, la perra le pare lechones. 54 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. ox that tossed me threw me upon a good place " (Spanish). 1 He is like a cat, he always falls on his feet. Cast ye owre the house riggen, and yell fa' on your feet. - Scotch. Give a man luck, and throw him into the sea. " Pitch him into the Nile," say the Arabs, " and he will come up with a fish in his mouth ; " and the Germans, " If he threw up a penny on the roof, down would come a dollar to him." 2 What is worse than ill luck ? An unhappy man's cart is eith to tumble. Scutch. That is, easily upset. It happens always to some people, as Coleridge said of himself, to have their bread and butter fall on the buttered side. An Irishman of this ill-starred class is commonly supposed to have been the autlior of the saying, He that is born under a threepenny planet will never be worth a groat. If my father had made me a hatter men would have been born without heads. But the thought is not original in our language : an unlucky Arab had long ago declared, " If I were to trade in winding-sheets no one would die." A man of this stamp " Falls on his back and breaks his nose '* 1 El buey que me acorno, en buen lugar me echo. 2 Wiirf er einen Groschen aufs Dach, fiel ihm ein Thaler herunter. LUCK, FORTUNE, MISFORTUNE. 55 .(French). 1 The Basques say of him, " Maggots breed in his salt box ; " the Provei^als, " He would sink a ship freighted with crucifixes ; " the Italians, " He would break his neck upon a straw." 2 Misfortunes seldom come single. Misfortunes come by forties. Welsh. Ill comes upon waur's back. Scotch. " Fortune is not content with crossing any man once," says Publius Syrus. 3 " After losing, one loses roundly," say the French. 4 The Spaniards have three remarkable proverbs to express the same conviction : " Whither goest thou, Misfortune ? To where there is more." 5 Whither goest thou, Sorrow? Whither I am wont." 6 " Welcome, Misfortune, if thou comest alone." 7 The Italian equivalents are numerous : e. ARIS HONESTO. " Gate be open never. Be closed against an honest man." 1 Nser hielper mangen Mand. 2 N served slaaer ingen Mand ihiel. 3 Beinalie bringt keine Miicke um. 4 Pour un point Martin perdit son ane. 88 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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 con- firmed by the fact that in Italy they have also another reading of the proverb, namely, Per un punto Martina perse la cappa ("For a point Martin lost the cope"); that is, the dignity of abbot typified in that vestment. 89 WILL. INCLINATION. DESIEE. 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). 1 A man of sense and resolution will make instruments of whatever conies to his hands ; and truly " He is not a good mason who refuses any stone " (Italian). 2 " He that has a good head does not want for hats " (French). 3 Where the will is ready the feet are light* " The willing dancer is easily played to " (Servian). 5 " The will does it " (German). 6 " A voluntary burden is no burden " (Italian). 7 " 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 rnile-a." 1 A buun cavalier 11011 niancu lunuiu. 2 Non buoii muraior cLi ritiuta pietra alcuna. s Qui a bonne tete ne manque pas de chapeaux. * In German, "VVillig Herz macht leichte Fiisse. * Also Flemish, Het is licht genoech ghepepen die gheein danst. Der Wille thut's. i Carica volontaria non carica. 90 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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). 1 " It is bad coursing with unwilling hounds " (Dutch). 2 " A thing done perforce is not worth a rush " (Italian). 3 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 so- licited his aid in a certain affair, " if the thing is pos- sible, it is done ; and if it is impossible, it shall be done." 4 Good-will should be taken in part payment Take the will for the deed. " Gifts are as the givers " (German). 5 " The will gives the work its name." " The will is the soul of the work" (German). 6 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 1 On ne saurait faire boire un ane s'il n'a pas soif. Med onwillige honden is kwaad hazen vangen. 3 Cosa fatta per forza non val una scorza. 4 Madame, si la chose est possible, elle est deja faite ; et si elle est impossible, elle se fera. * Die Gaben sind wie die Geber. 6 Der Wille giebt dem Werke den Namen. Der Wille ist des Werkes Seele. \VILK, INCLINATION, DESIRE. 91 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." J 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 links. 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). 2 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 in- dustrious and well acquainted with her late husband's trade. "Very well," said the priest, "you had better i Der Weg zum Verderben est mil guten Vorsatzen gepflastert. * On fait dire aux cloches tout ce qu'on veut. 92 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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." * 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." 2 1 Prends ton valet; prends ton valet. 2 Ne le prends pas ; ne le prends pas. WILL, INCLINATION, DESIRE. 98 Wilful will do it. A wilfu' man maun hae his way. Scotch. He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar. Scotch. Cupar is a town in Fife, and that is all that Scotch parsemiologists condescend to tell us about it. I sup- pose 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). 1 " 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." 2 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 1 Dulce pomum quum abest custos. 4 Verbotenes Wasser ist Malvasier. 94 PBOVEBBS OF ALT- NATIONS. had sighed for in vain a new pleasure she cried out, " Ah ! what a pity it is that drinking water is not a sm ! " There is no pleasure hut palls, and all the more if it costs nothing" (Spanish). 1 "The sweetest grapes hang highest " (German). 2 " 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 par- ticularly desires to do. "A man who can't sing is always striving to sing " (Latin) ; 3 and generally " He who can't do, always wants to do" (Italian). 4 Forbid a fool a thing, and that hell 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). 8 1 No hay placer que no enhade, y raas se cuesta de balde. 2 Die siissessten Trauben hangen am bochsten. 3 Qni nescit canere semper canere laborat. 4 Chi non puole, sempre vuole. * Steckenpferde sind theuerer als arabische Hengste. WILL, INCLINATION, DESIRE. 95 Tou may pay too dear for your whistle. The origin of this saying, which has become tho- roughly 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 tilled 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, 1 volun- tarily 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 1 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 im- pression 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." 00 CUSTOM. HABIT. USE. Use will make a man live in a lion's den. Custom is second nature. Cicero saj3 nearly the same thing. 1 and the thought has been happily amplified by Sydney Smith. "There is no degree of disguise or distortion Avhich 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 com- pletely 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 prin- ciples which do exist in our nature it entirely deter- mines the order and force." 2 1 Ferme in naturam consuetude vestitur. (De Invent, i. 2.) * " Lectures on Moral Philosophy." CUSTOM, HABIT, USE. 97 Once a use and ever a custom. " Continuance becomes usage " (Italian). 1 What- ever 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). 2 Hand in use is father o' lear [learning, skiU].- Practice makes perfect " By working in the smithy one becomes a smith " (Latin, French). 3 " Use makes the craftsman " (Spanish, German). 4 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 1 Continnanza Jiventa usanza. 2 Mudar costumbre a par de muerte. 3 Fabricando fit faber. En forgeant on devient forgeron. 4 El usar saca oficial. Uebung macht den Meister. 98 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. from Coleridge, who does not tell us in what Oriental Joe Miller be found it. No man is his craft's master the first day. But some people fancy themselves masters boru, like " The Portuguese apprentice, who does not know how to sew, and wants to cut out' T (Spanish). 1 You must spoil before you spin. " One learns by failiug " (French). 2 " He that stumbles, if he does not fall, quickens his pace " (Spanish). 3 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 com- mentators, " A custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance." An energetic Spanish pro- verb counsels us to " Break the leg of a bad habit." 4 At Borne do as Rome does. " Wherever you be, do as you see " (Spanish). 5 A 1 Aprendiz de Portugal, no sabe cozer y quiere cortar. 2 On apprend en faillant. 3 Quien estropiesa, si no cae, el caniino adelanta. 4 A mal costumbre, quebrarle la pierna. 5 For donde fueres, baz como vieres. CUSTOM, HABIT, USE 99 very terse German proverb, which can only be para- phrased in English, signifies that whatever is cus- tomary in any country is proper and becoming there ; or, as \ve might say, " After the land's manner is man- nerly." 1 The Livonians say, " In the land of the naked people are ashamed of clothes." " So many countries, so many customs " (French). 2 In a Palais Royal farce a captain's wife is deploring her husband, who has been eaten by the Caffres. Her servant ob- serves, by way of consolation, Mais, madame, que voule^- rons ? Chaque peuple a ses mages (" Well, well, ma'am, after all, every people has its own manners and cus- toms "). Tell me the company you keep, and I 'il tell you what you are. Tell me with whom thou goest, and 1 11 tell thee what thou doest " He that lives with cripples learns to limp " (Dutch). 3 " He that goes with wolves learns to howl " (Spanish) ; 4 and " He that lies down with dogs gets up with fleas " (Spanish). 5 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. 1 Landlicb, sittlich. 2 Tant de pays, tant de guises. 3 Die bij kreupelen woont, leert hinken. < Quien con lobos anda, a aullar se ensefia. 5 Quien con perros se echa, con pulgas se levanta. 100 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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). 1 " Better be mad with all the world than wise alone " (French). 9 The used key is always bright " ' If I rest, I rust,' it says " (German). 3 Drawn wells have sweetest water ; but Standing pools gather filth. Drawn wells are seldom dry. Les fous inventent les modes, et les sages les suivent. II vaut mieux Stre fou avec tous que sage tout seul. Rast ich, so rost ich, sagt tier Schliissel. 101 SELF-CONCETT. 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 caine 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 yEsop," 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.-St-o/cA. That is, not all who bear that name belong to the royal race of Stuarts. " There are fagots and fagots," 1 as Moliere says. " It is some way from Peter to Peter " (Spanish;. 2 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. 1 11 y a fagots et fagot*. 2 Algo va de Pedro a Pedro. 102 PROVERBS OF ALL NATfONS. 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 helieves himself a deer, finds out his mistake at the leaping of the ditch " (Italian).' " Doctor Luther's shoes will not fit every village priest " (German). 2 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 '11 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 cla, Trage Jeder seinem Sack zur Mulle. 2 Ogni volpe habbia cura della sua coda. 3 Zelf is de Man. 4 Manda o amo ao 111050, o mo?o ao gato, e o gato ao rabo. SELF-LOVE, SELF-INTEKEST, SELF-HE LTANCE. 107 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 \vill 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). 1 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) ; 2 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. 3 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." 1 Quien tiene boca no diga a otro, sopla. 2 Clii ha qualtrini a bnttar via, metti operaji, e non vi stia. 3 El pie del dueno estiercol para la beredad. 108 PROVEKBS OF ALL NATIONS. He that owns the cow goes nearest her tail Smtch. 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). 1 . O Front! nulla fides. Schein betrugt. 2 " Maxims of an Old Stager," by Judge Halliburton. 128 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. All ia not gold that glitters. Yellow iron pyrites is as bright as gold, and has often been mistaken for it. The worthless spangles have even been imported at great cost from California. " Every glowworm is not a fire " (Italian). 1 " Where you think there are flitches of bacon there are not even hooks to hang them on " (Spanish). 2 Many a reputed rich man is insolvent. Much ado about nothing. " 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). 3 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. Ton 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). 4 1 Ogni lucciola non fuoco. * Ado pensas que hay tocinos, no hay estacas. 3 Partnriunt monies, nascetur ridiculus mus. 4 Debfijo de una mala capa hay un buen bebedor. KAI.8K APPEARANCES, ETC. 129 " 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." l " ' 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." 2 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. 3 The Servians say, " A smooth river washes away its banks ; " the French, "There is no worse water than that which sleeps." 4 "The most covered fire is the strongest" (French); 5 and " Under white ashes there is glowing coal " (Italian). 6 1 No lo quiero, no lo quiero, mas echad lo en mi capilla. 2 Chi biasima vuol comprare. * Altissima flumina minimo sono labuntur. * II n'y a pire eau que 1'eau qui dort s Le feu le plus couvert est le plus ardent. Sotto la bianca cenere sta la brace ardente. 130 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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." l Defoe says, " Wlierever God erects a honse of prayer, The devil always bnilds 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. 2 The French say, "The devil chants high mass," 3 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," 4 say the Spaniards ; and, " By the vicar's skirts the devil gets up into the belfry." 5 " the slyness of sin," exclaim 1 "Friends in Council." 2 Non si tosto si fa nn tempio a Dio, die il diavolo ci fabbrica una cappella appresso. s Le diable cliante la grande messe. 4 Detras cle la cruz esta el diablo. s For las haldas del vieario sube el diablo al campanario. HYPOCRISY. 131 the Germans, " that puts an angel before every devil! " l 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." 8 When the fox preaches beware of the geese. " The fox preaches to the hens" (French). 3 "When the devil says his paternosters he wants to cheat you " (French). 4 " Never spread your wheat in the sun before the canter's door" (Spanish). 5 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). 6 " The cat is friendly, but scratches " (Spanish).? " Many kiss the hands they would fain see chopped off " (Arab and Spanish). 8 1 iiber die schlaue Sunde, die einen Engel vor jeden Teufel stellt ! 2 Couvrir son diable du plus bel ange. 3 Le renard precbe aux ponies. 4 Quand le diable (lit ses patenotres, il vent te tromper. 5 Ante la puerta del rezador nunca eches tu trigo al sol. 6 Palabras de santo, y ufias de gato. 7 Buen amigo es el gato, sino que rascuna. 8 Muchos besan manos que quierian ver cortadas. 182 PROVERBS OF ALT, NATIONS. 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." l " Nothing is more like an honest man than a rogue " (French). 2 They 're no a' saints that get holy water. Scotch. " All are not saints who go to church " (Italian). 3 " Not all who go to church say their prayers " (Italian). 4 " All are not hunters who blow the horn " (French).* " All are not soldiers who go to the wars " (Spanish). 6 "All are not princes who ride with the emperor" (Dutch). ^ 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 ! 8 " All criminals turn preachers when they are under the gallows " (Italian). 9 -"The galley is in a bad way Parece que no enturbia el agua. Rien ne ressemble plus a un honnete homme qu'un fripon. Non son tutti santi quelli che vannain chiesa. Non tutti chi vanno in chiesa fauno orazione. Ne sont pas tous chasseurs qui sonnent du cor. 6 Non son soldados todos los que van a la guerra. * Zij zijn niet alien gelijk die met den keizer rijdgn. -5grotat daemon, monachus tune esse volebat ; Daemon convaluit, daemon ut ante fuit. Tutti i rei divengono predicatori quando stanno sotto la forca. HYPOCRISY DOUBLE-DEALING. 133 when the corsair promises masses and caudles " (Spanish). 1 Satan rebukes sin.a The friar preached against stealing when he had a pudding in his According to the Italian account of the affair the friar had a goose in his scapulary on that occasion. 3 " Do as the friar says, aud not as he does " (Spanish).* To carry two faces under one hood. To be what the Romans called " double-tongued," s or, in French phrase, "To wear a coat of two parishes." 8 E'ormerly 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 pwn 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. 1 Quando el corsario promete misas y cera, con mal anda la galera. Claudius accusat nicechos. II frate predicava che non si dovesse robbare, e egli aveva I'c oca nel scapulario. Haz lo que dice el frayle, y no lo que liace. Homo bilingiiis Porter un habit do deux 1'ftroistes. 134 PROVEURS OF ALL NATIONS. 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." 1 Liberius Mimus was one of a new batch of senators created by Caesar. 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 Caesar, 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). 2 If the devil is vicar, you 11 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 1 Duabus sellis sedere. * Hij built met i\ot OVK etffi (pt\oi. 143 EXPERIENCE. Bought wit is best. Wit once bought is worth twice taught. Hang a dog on a crabtree, and hell 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). 1 "A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow " (Italian). 2 " Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard alarms " (Italian). 3 "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). 4 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 1 Chat echaude craint 1'eau froide. * 11 can battnto dal bastone, ha paura dell' ombra. * Chi della serpa punto, ha paura della lucertola. 4 Tranquillas etiam naufragns horret aquas. EXPERIENCE. 149 ass does not stumble twice over the same stone" (French). 1 "Unfairly does he blame Neptune who suffers shipwreck a second time " (Publius Syrus). 2 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. 3 " Happy he who is made wary by others' perils " (Latin). 4 Old birds are not to be caught with chaff. " Old crows are hard to catch " (German). 5 " New- nets don't catch old birds " (Italian). 6 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 1 Un ane ne trebuche pas deux fois sur la meme pierre. 2 Improbe Neptnnum accusat qui iterum naufragiuin facit. 3 *Os llTfl KttKbj/ fXt V&1)fff. 4 Felix quern fuciunt aliena pericula cautura. 5 Alte Kralien sind s^hwer zn fangen. 6 Nuova rete non piglia ucfello vecchio. 150 PEOVEEBS OF ALL KATION3. 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 theu he got for answer the phrase which has passed into a proverb, " A d'autres, deuicheur 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). 1 " There is no hunting but with old hounds " (French). 2 Live and learn. The longer we live the mair ferlies [wonders] we see. Scotch. 1 Cane vecchio non baia indarno. a II n'est chasse que de vieux eliien-;. EXPERIENCE. 151 Adversity makes a man wise, not rich. " Wind in the face makes a man wise " (French). 1 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). 2 " Don't talk Latin before clerks " (French), 3 or " Arabic in the Moor's house " (Spanish). 4 , The proof of the pudding is in the eating. " Do not judge of the ship while it is on the stocks " (Italian). War 's sweet to them that never tried it 1 Vent au visage rend un homme sage. 2 Chi e dell'arte, puo ragionar della. 3 11 ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs. In casa del moro no hablar algarabia. 5 Non giudicar la nave staudo in terra. 15-2 CHOICE. DILEMMA. COMPARISON. Pick and choose, and take the worst. The lass that has mony wooers aft wales [chooses] the warst. SfiOtr/i . Eefiise a wife with one fault, and take one with two. - Welsh. " He that has a choice has trouble " (Dutch). 1 " He that chooses takes the worst " (French). 2 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." 1 Die keur heeft, heeft angst. 2 Qui choisit prend le pire. CHOICE, DILEMMA, COMPARISON. 158 * There '3 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 meta- phors ; e. g., " To come out of the rain under the spout " (German). 1 "Flying from the bull, I fell into the river" (Spanish). 2 "To break the constable's head and take refuge with the sheriff" (Spanish). 3 "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, lieu ! perdite, nescis Quern fugias : hostes incurris dum fugis hostem; Incidis iu Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdiua." Go forward, and fall ; go backward, and mar all. " A precipice ahead, wolves behind " (Latin). 4 " To be between the hammer and the anvil " (French). 5 You may go farther and fare worse. To be between the devil and the deep sea. 1 Aus dem hegen unter die Traufe kommen. 2 Huyendo del toro, cayo en el arroyo. * Descalabrar el alguacil, y accogerse al corregidor. 4 A fronte prrecipitium, a tergo lupi. 4 Etre entire le marteau et 1'enclume. 154 PROVEKBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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). 1 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.2 Do not put all your eggs in one basket; nor " too many of them under one hen " (Dutch). 3 " Hang not all upon one nail " (German), 4 nor risk your whole fortune upon one venture. Comparisons are odious. 1 Dove non sono i cani, la volpe & re. 2 Mus uni non fidit antro. Plautus. 3 Man moet niet te viel eijeren onder eene hen leggen. 4 Henke nicht alles auf einen Nagel. 155 SHIFTS. CONTRIVANCES. STBAINED 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. Scotc/t. Bield, shelter. A man's present occupation may not be lucrative, or his connections as serviceable as he could wish, but h 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 '11 do it by slight. Scotch. " It's best no to be rash," said Edie Ochiltree l-"f> PROVERBS OK ATJ, NATIONS. 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 accord- ing 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 SHIFTS, CONTRIVANCES, STKAINED USES. 157 himself in the slightest degree. " Contrivance is better than force " (French). 1 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 Nemaean beast worn by his great ancestor, " Where the lion's skin conies short we must eke it ou: 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 mal- treating the weak. " On a little pretext the wolf seizes the sheep " (French), 2 or the lamb, as the fable shows. " If you want to flog your dog say he ate the poker " (Spanish). 3 " If a man wants to thrash his wife, let him ask her for drink in the sunshine " (Spanish), 4 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 1 Mienx vaut engin que force. 2 A petite achoison le loup prend le mouton. Para azotar el perro, que se come el hierro. * Quien quiere dar palos a su muger, pidele al sol a bever. 158 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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 " con- fession 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, how- ever good, is liable to be used mischievously. 1 1 " Con 1'Evangelo talvolta si diventa eretico " is the original, as given by Toriano in his folio collection of Italian proverbs, London, 1666. In Giusti's " Eaccolta," &c., Firenza, 1853, we read, " Col Vangelo si puo diventar eretici," to which the editor appends this gloss, " Ogni cosa puo torcersi a male." 159 ADVICE. He that will not be counselled cannot be helped. " He who will not go to heaven needs no preaching" (German). 1 "He that will not hear must feel " (German). 2 Two heads are better than one. " Four eyes see more than two " (Spanish) ; 3 and " More know the pope and a peasant than the pope alone," 4 as they say in Venice. Come na to the council unca'd. Scotch. " Never give advice unasked " (German). 5 Every one thinks himself able to advise another. "Nothing is given so freely as advice" (French). 6 " Of judgment every one has a stock for sale " (Italian). 7 1 Wer nicht in den Himmel will, brauoht keine Predigt. 2 Wer nicht horen will, muss fuhlen. 3 Mas veen quatro ojos que dos. 4 Sa piu il papa e un contadino che il papa solo. 5 Rathe Niemand ungebeten. 6 Rien ne se donne aussi liberalement que les conseils. * Del judizio ognun ne vende. 160 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 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). 1 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). 2 A fool may put something in a vise man's head. It was a saying of Cato the elder, that wise men learnt more by fools than fools by wise men. ' Hvo som bygger efter hver Hands Raad, bans Huser kommer kroget at staae. 2 Tag Mange til Hielp og Faa til Had. 161 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). 1 " It is only at the tree laden with fruit that people throw stones " (French) 2 " 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 " 1 I megliori alberi sono i piu battati. 2 On ne jette des pierres qu'a 1'arbre charge de fruits. M 162 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. (Spanish). 1 The Arahs 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 : 2 Throw much dirt, and some will stack. Fortunately When the dirt 's dry it will rub out. Ill-will never spoke welL The evidence of a prejudiced witness is to be dis- trusted. " He that is an enemy to the bride does not speak well of the wedding" (Spanish) ; 3 and " A runaway monk never spoke in praise of his monastery " (Italian). 4 Give a dog an ill name and hang him. " I Tl not beat thee, nor abuse thee," said the Quaker to his dog : "but 1 11 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." 5 The Spaniards say, " Whoso wants to kill his dog has but to charge him with madness." 6 All are not thieves that dogs bark at. The innocent are sometimes cried down. " An 1 El golpe de la sarten, aunqne no duele, tizna. - Calumniare audacter, aliquid adhserebit. 3 El que es enemigo de la novia no dice bien de la boda. 4 Monaco vagabondo non disse mai lode del suo monastero. 5 Le bruit pend I'hornme. * Quien a su perro quiere matas, rabia le ha de levantar. COMMON FAME. 163 honest man is not the worse because a dog barks at him " (Danish). 1 " What cares lofty Diana for the barking clog ? " (Latin). 2 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). 3 " There 's never much talk of a thing but there 's some truth in it " (Italian). 4 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 abso- lutely 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). 4 " Hear the other side, and believe little " (Italian). 6 1 yErlig Mand er ei disvserre, at en Hund gbe.r ad ham. 2 Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem ? 3 E' non si grida mai al lupo, die non sia in paese. Non si dice mai tanto una cosa che non sia qualehe cosa. * Horensagen 1st lialb gelogen. Aver senlito dire e mezza nfgiik Odi 1'altra parte, e credi poco. PROVERBS OF ALL XATfONS. 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). 1 " Report makes the wolf bigger than he is " (German). 2 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). 3 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). 4 "The honest man enjoys the theft " (Spanish). 5 A gude name is sooner tint [lost] than won. Scotch. " Once in folks' mouths, hardly ever well out of them again " (German). 6 . " Good repute is like the cypress : once cut, it never puts forth leaf again " (Italian). 7 > No es tan bravo el leon como le pintan. 2 Geschrei macht den Wolf grosser als er ist. s Cobra buena fama, y ecbate a dormir. * Buena fama hurto encubre. s El buen hombre goza el burto. s Einmal in der Leute Mund, kommt man iibel wiederheraus. 7 La buona fama come il cipresso : una volta tagliato non riverdisce piu. 105 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; " l and in the same sense " A liar is sooner caught than a cripple." 2 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." 1 La mentira tiene cortas las piernas. Le bugie hanno corte le gambe. 2 Si arriva piii presto un bugiardo che un /oppo. 166 PROVERBS OF AT.f, NATIONS 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). 1 Truth may be blamed, but shall ne'er be shamed. " It is mighty, and will prevail " (Latin). 2 " It is God's daughter " (Spanish). 3 " Truth and oil always come to the surface " (Spanish). 4 " It takes a good many shovelfuls of earth to bury the truth " (German). 5 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). 6 Truth has a good face, but ragged clothes. He that follows truth too near the heels will have dirt kicked in his 1 Veritas non qnaerit angulos. * Magna est veritas et prrevalebit. 8 La verdad es hija de Dios. 4 La verdad, como el olio, siempre anda en somo. 5 Zum Begrabniss der Wahrheit gehoren viel Schaufeln. 8 Mai me quieren mis comadres, porque lesdigo lasverdades. TRUTH, FALSEHOOD, HONESTY. 167 Honesty is the best policy. 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." 168 SPEECH. SILENCE. Speech is silvern, silence is golden. "Be silent, or say something that is better thau silence " (German). 1 " Better silence than ill speech " (Swedish). 2 "Talking comes by nature, silence of understanding " (German). 3 " Who speaks, sows; who keeps silence, reaps " (Italian). 4 Silence seldom does harm. Least said, soonest mended. The piinciple applies still more forcibly to writing. " Words fly, writing remains " (Latin). 5 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). Give Cardinal Richelieu two lines of any man's writing and 1 Schweig, oder rede etwas das besser ist denn Schweigen. 2 Battre tyga an ilia tala. 3 Reden kommt von Natur, Schweigen von Verstunde. 4 Chi parla, seniina; chi tace, rai-coglie. * Verba volant, scripta manent. 6 Pensa molto, parla poco, scrivi meno. SPEECH, SILENCE. 169 he needed no more to hang him. Fabio Merto, an archbishop of the seventeenth century, has oddly re- marked, " 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); ' and " A silent man's words are not brought into court" (Danish). 2 "Hear, see, and say nothing, if you wish to live-in peace " (Italian). 3 A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat. "Let not the tongue say what the head shall pay for" (Spanish). 4 "The sheep that bleats is strangled by the wolf" (Italian). 5 "He that knows nothing knows enough if he knows how to be silent " (Italian). 6 A fool's bolt is soon shot. " A foolish judge passes quick sentence " (French). 7 "He who knows little soon sings it out " (Spanish). 8 When a fool has spoken he has done all. " It is always the worst wheel that creaks" (French, 1 II tacere non fu mai scritto. 2 Tiende Mauds Ord korame ei til Tinge. * Odi, vedi, e taci, se vuoi viver in pace. 4 No diga la lengua por do paque la cabeza. * Pecora che bela, il lupo la strozza. s Assai sa, clii non sa, se tacer sa. * De fol juge breve sentence. 8 Quieu poco sabe, presto lo reza. 170 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. Italian). 1 The shallowest persons are the most loqua- cious. " Were fools silent they would pass for wise " (Dutch). 2 Silence gives consent. "Silence answers much" (Dutch). 3 A man may hold his tongue in an ill time. " Amyclae was undone by silence" (Latin). 4 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). 5 1 C'est toujours la plus raauvaise roue qui crie. E la peggior ruota quella che fa piu rumore. 2 Zweegen de dwazen zij waren wijs. 3 Zwijgen antwoordt veel. 4 Arayclas silentium perdidit. * 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), 1 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;) 2 but " Beware of a silent dog and of still water" (Latin). 3 "The silent dog bites first " (German). 4 "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 1 A pud Bactryanos vulgo usurpabant canem timidum vehe- mentius latrare quam mordere. - Was schadet das Hundes Bellen der nicbt beisst? 3 Cave tibi cane muto et aqua silente. 4 Schweigender Hand beisst am ersten. J ft PEOVEKBS OF ALL NATIONS. hanged" (Italian). 1 "More are threatened than are stabbed " (Spanish). 2 " Threatened folk, too, eat bread" (Portuguese). 3 "David did not slay Goliath with words " (Icelandic). 4 " No one dies of threats " (Dutch). 5 "Not all threateners fight" (Dutch). 6 " Some threaten who are afraid " (French). 7 " A curse does not knock an eye out unless the fist go with it " (Danish). 8 " 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." 9 Silence grips the mouse. " A mewing cat was never a good uiouser " (Spanish). 10 " He that threatens warns " (German). 11 " He that threatens wastes his anger " (Portuguese). 12 " The 1 Vive piii il rainacciato eke 1'impiccato. 2 Mas son los amenazados que los acuckillados. 8 Tambem os amea9ados comem pad. 4 Ekks Davitli Goliat med ordum drap. 4 Van dreigen sterft man met. 6 Alle dreigers vechten niet. 7 Tel menace qui a peur. 8 Bande bider ei Oie ud, uden Naeven fblger med. Schiaffo minacciato, mai ben dato. Bofeton amagado, nunca bien dado. 10 Gato maublador nunca buen ca?ador. 11 Wer droht, warnt. 12 Quern ameaya, su ira gasta. THREATENING, BOASTING. 173 threatener loses the opportunity of vengeance "(Spanish). 1 " Threats are arms for the threatened " (Italian). 2 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. ScnMt. " Hares are not caught with beat of drum " (French). 1 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 hoaster as you would a liar " (Italian). 4 " 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). 5 "It is not the hen which cackles most that lays most eggs " (Dutch). 6 "A long tongue betokens a short hand" (Spanish). 7 El amenazador hace perder el lugar de venganza. Le minaccie son arme del minacciato. On ne pi-end pas le levre au tambour. Credi al vantatore come al mentitore. Grands vanteurs, petits faiseurs. Het hoen, dat bet meest kakelt, geeft de tneeate eijers niet. La lengua luenga es seiial de raano corta. 174 PROVERBS OF ALL NATION'S. Saying gangs cheap. Scotch. Saying and doing are two things. " From saying to doing is a long stretch " (French). 1 " Words are female, deeds are male " (Italian). 2 " Words will not do for my aunt, for she does not trust even deeds " (Spanish). 8 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). 4 " It is easy to frighten a bull from the window " (Italian). 5 " Many are brave when the enemy flees " (Italian). 6 It is well said, but who will bell the cat? Scotch. " The mice consult together how to take the cat, but they do not agree upon the matter " (Livonian). "Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat upon the following remai'kable occasion : When the Scottish nobility assembled to Du dire au fait il y a grand trait. Le parole son femmine, e i fatti son maschi. No son palabras para mi tia, que aun de las obras no se lia. A moro nmerto gran lanzada. E facile far paura al toro dalla fenestra. Molli son bravi quando I'mimico frigge. THREATENING, BOASTING. 175 deliberate on putting the obnoxious favourites of James III. to death, Lord Grey told them the fable of the mice, who resolved that one of their number should put a bell round the neck of the cat, to warn them of its coming ; but no one was so hardy as to attempt it. ' I understand the moral,' said Angus ; ' I will bell the cat.' He bearded the king to purpose by hanging the favourites over the bridge of Lauder ; Cochran, their chief, being elevated higher than the rest." (Note to Marmion.) Self-praise is no commendation. Self-praise stinks. Ye live beside ill neebours. Scutch. Your trumpeter is dead. The last two are taunts addressed to persons who sound their own praises. A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggen o' t Scotch. A man does not prove the depth and sincerity of his sentiments by an ostentatious display of them. Good wine needs no bush. Gude ale needs nae wisp. Scotch. A bunch of twigs, or a wisp of hay or straw hung up at a roadside house, is a sign that drink is sold within. This custom, which still lingers in the cider-making counties of the west of England, and prevails more generally in France, is derived from the Romans, among whom a bunch of ivy, the plant sacred to 176 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. Bacchus, was appropriately used as the sign of a wine- shop. They, too, used to say, " Vendible wine needs no ivy hung up." * " Good wine needs no crier " (Spanish). 2 "It sells itself" (Spanish). 3 "Bosky" is one of the innumerable euphemisms for "drunk " Probably the phrase, " he is bosky," originally conveyed an allusion to the symbolical use of the bush, with which all good fellows were familiar in the olden time. 1 Vino vendibili suspensa liedera non est opus. 2 El vino bueno no ha menester pregonero. 3 El Imen vino la venta trae consigo. 177 SECRETS. No secrets but between two. "Where could you have heard that?" said a friend to Grattan. " Why, it is a profound secret." " I heard it," said Grattan, " where secrets are kept in the street." Napoleon I. used to say, " Secrets travel fast in Paris." 1 Three may keep counsel if two be away. We are told in several languages " That the secret of two is God's secret the secret of three is all the world's;" 2 and the Spaniards hold that " What three know every creature knows." 3 The surest plan is, of course, not to trust to anybody ; and this was the plan pursued by Alva and by Q. Metellus Macedonicus, whose maxim, " If my tunic knew my secret I would burn it forthwith," has been turned by the French into a rhyming proverb of their own: " Let the shirt next your skin not know what 's within." 4 The Chinese 1 Les confidences vont vite a Paris. 2 Secret de deux, secret de Dieu ; secret de trois, secret de tous. 3 Lo qiie saben tres, sabe toda res. 4 Que ta chemise ne sache ta guise. N 178 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. say, " What is whispered in the ear is often heard a hundred miles off." Truly " Nothing is so burden- some as a secret " (French). 1 The Livonians have this humorous hyperbole, " Confide a secret to a dumb man and it will make him speak." King Midas's barber scraped a hole in the earth, and, lying down, poured into it the tremendous secret that oppressed him ; but the earth did not keep it close, for it sprouted up with the growing corn, which proclaimed with articulate rustlings, " King Midas hath the ears of an ass." Tom Noddy's secret. Or, " The secret of Polichinelle " (French) ; 2 that is to say, one which is known to everybody. This is what the Spaniards call "The secret of Anchuelos." 8 The town of that name lies in a gorge between two steep hills, on one of which a shepherd tended his flock, on the other a "shepherdess. This pair kept up an amorous converse by bawling from hill to hill, but always with many mutual injunctions of secrecy. Murder will out. " And a man's child cannot be hid," adds Lancelot Gobbo. The English proverb is used jocosely, though derived from an awful sense of the fatality, as it were, with which bloody secrets are almost always brought to 1 Rien ne pese tant qu'un secret. 1 Le secret de Polichinelle. * El secreto de Anchuelos. 179 light. It seems to us as though the order of nature were inverted when the perpetrator of a murder escapes detection. This faith in Nemesis was expressed in the ancient Greek proverb, "The cranes of Ibycus," of which this is the story. The lyric poet Ibycus was murdered by robbers on his way to Corinth, and with his last breath committed the task of avenging him to a flock of cranes, the only living things in sight besides himself and his murderers. The latter, some time after, sitting in the theatre at Corinth, saw a flock of cranes overhead, and one of them said scoffingly, " Lo, there the avengers of Ibycus ! " These words were caught up by some near them, for already the poet's disappearance had excited alarm. The men being questioned betrayed themselves, and were led to their doom, and " The cranes of Ibycus " passed into a proverb. This story may serve to show how Daylight will peep through a small hole. "Eggs are close things," say the Chinese, "but the chicks come out at last." " A secret fire is discovered by the smoke " (Catalan). 1 To let the cat out of the bag. To betray a secret inadvertently. I cannot tell what is the origin of this phrase. Can it be that it alludes to the practice of selling cats for hares ? A fraudulent vendor, while pressing a customer " to buy a cat in a 1 For secreto, lo furuo lo descovre. 180 PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. bag," (see p. 61,) might in an unguarded moment let him see enough to detect the imposition. When rogues fall out honest men come by their own. They peach upon each other. "Thieves quarrel, and thefts are discovered " (Spanish). 1 " Gossips fall out, and tell each other truths " (Spanish). 2 " When the cook and the butler fall out we shall know what is become of the butter " (Dutch). Tell your secret to your servant, and you make him your master. Juvenal notes the policy of the Greek adventurers in Rome to worm out the secrets of the house, and so make themselves feared. " To whom you tell your secret you surrender your freedom " (Spanish). 3 " Tell your friend your secret, and he will set his foot on your throat" (Spanish)." Walls have ears. " Hills see, walls hear " (Spanish). 5 " The forest has ears, the field has eyes " (German). 6 1 Pelean los ladrones, y descubriense los hurtos. * Rinen las comadres, y duense las verdades. * A quien dices tu puridad, a ese das tu libertad. * Di a tu amigo tu secreto, y tenerte ha el pie en el pescuezo. * Montes veen, paredes oyen. * Der Wald hat Ohren, das Feld hat Augen. 181 What soberness conceals drunkenness reveals. " What is in the heart of the sober man is on the tongue of the drunken man " (Latin). 1 " In wine is truth " (Latin). 2 " Wine wears no breeches " (Spanish). 3 When wine sinks, words swim.4 When the wine is in the wit is out. 1 Quod est in corde sobrii est in ore ebrii. 2 In vino veritas. 8 El vino anda sin ca^as. 4 This is in Herodotus : 'Qtvov Kwrlovros Evil, 57, 63 Flesh, 32 Ewe, 70 Fleyed, 57 Ewe and lamb, 45- Flies, 35, 70, 81 Excuse, excuses, 39, 123, 124, Flitches, 128 126 Foe, 43 Experience, 14& Folks, 164 Extremes, 83- Folly, 34 Eye, 78 Fool, 29, 34, 52, 75, 91, 94, 120, Eye, sore, 207 160, 161, 169 Fools, 28, 52, 74, 160 Fair and softly, 79 Forbid, 94 Fallout, 180 Forbidden fruit, 93 Fame, common, 163 Force, 157 Familiarity, 41 Forgotten, 39 Far awa', 39 Fortune, 52, 55, 56 Farther, 153 Forward, 153 Fashion, 99 Foster, 41, 46 Fashious, 40 Foul finger, 121 Fast bind, 65 Fox, 154, 183 231 Foxes, 183 God, 105, 114, 130, 130, 138, Framet, 40 139, 141, 145, 170, 187, 200, France, 225 204 Free, 115 God help, 120 Freere's, 209 Godfathers, 114 French, 222, 223, 225 God's sake, 115, 210 Frenchman, 225 Gold, 83, 128, 188 Friar, 55, 133, 209 Good name, 164 Friars, 200, 210 Good-will, 90 Friar's conscience, 65 Goodwin Sands, 220 Friday, 124, 224 Goose, 1, 115 Friend, 40, 43, 45, 46, 204 Gospel, 157 Friends, 39, 40, 4346, 136, Gotham, 219 147 Grace of God, 79 Friendship, 40, 42, 43, 45 Grapes, 94 Frog, 34 Grass, 211 Fruit, 70, 161 Greedy, 78, 79 Fruit, forbidden, 93 Grey mare, 23 Fruit, late, 30 Grindstone, 218 Frvingpan, 161 Gudewife, 76 Fides, 197 Gudewilly, 115 Full-fed, 190 Guest, 41 Furriers, 183 Habit, 97 Gain, 76 Hackerton's cow, 112 Galled horse, 124 Hair, 124, 145 Gallows, 116, 183 Half, 155, 201 Gambrel, 30 Halt, 151 Gander, 1 Hameliness, 41 Gear, 75 Hand, 173 Gear to tine, 186 Hand, in, 145 Gentle, 70, 81 Handsaw, 157 Gentleness, 81 Handsome, 10 German, 222, 225 Hang, 125, 128, 154, 183- -185 Germany, 225 Hanged, 84, 116, 125, 182, Gibbet, 116 184, 188 Giblets, 115 Hanging, 125, 127 Giff-gaff, 50 Hangit, 109 Gifts, 90 Hangs, 162 Gileynoar, 79 Hanselled, 185 Giving, 113 Hap, 53 Glass houses, 119 Happy, 53, 187 Glitters, 128 Hardest step, 193 Glowworm, 128, Hare, 101, 134 Glutton, 81 Hares, 145 Goat, 10 Harried, 53 yya INDEX. Harvest, 214 Husbands, 22 Haste, 80 Hatter, 54 Ibycus, 179 Hawk, 34 Idle, 71, 72 Hay, 138 111, 55, 56, 58 Head, sound, 123 111 name, 162 Hearsay, 163 111 said, 126 Heart, 110, 131 Ill-will, 162 Heaven, 136 111 wind, 56 Heaven, goes to, 187 Intentions, 90, 91 Hell, 90, 91, 136, 202 Irishman, 216 Helmet, 64 Iron, 138 Help, 46, 48, 160 Italian, 222, 223, 225 Helps, 147 Italianised Englishman, 217 Helped, 159 Italy, 223 Hen, 23, 33 Hens, 115 Jack, 52, 82 Hen's egg, 86, 113 Janiveer, 211 Herring, 105, 141 January, 211 Hobby, 95 Jealousy, 12 Hog, 35 Jedwood, 185 Home, 36, 104 Jews, 224 Homely, 36 Joan, 10 Honest man, 132, 164, 167 Jock Thief, 48 Honesty, 166 John Jelly, 105 Honey, 35, 70, 81, 196, 214 Joyous heart, 89 Hood, 133 Judgment, 159 Hooly and fairly, 79 July, 213 Hope, 125, 146, 147 June, 213 Hopers, 91 Justice, 112 Horn, 62, 133 Justice, Peralvillo, 184 Horse, 29, 49, 70, 86, 90, 115 Justice, the, 197 Horse corn, 115 Horses, 101 Kail, 65 Horse, a good, 122 Kent, 222 Horseman, 103 Kettle, 120 Host, 108, 141 Key, 65, 100 Hostess, 9 Keys, 68 Hound, 33 Kick, 58 Hounds, 90, 101, 134, 150 Kiln, 120 House, 21, 37, 38, 82, 175 Kind, 33 Hungarian, 222 Kindness, 14, 43 Hunger, 189, 190,209 King, 38, 85, 101 Hungry, 81, 146, 18U, 190 King's, 199 Hunters, 132 King's horses, 102 Hurt, 57 Kiss, 131 233 Kissing, 46 Lorris, 58 Kitchen, 74 Losing, 55 Knave, 117 Love, 11 15, 26, 200 Knock down, 58 Loyal, 222 Luck, 5154, 71 Labours, 71 Lucky, 53 Lack, 78 Luther's shoes, 102 Ladder, 48 Lying, 86 Lady, 49 Laird, 136, 222 Mad, 100 Lamb, 84 Mad dog, 183 Landlady, 9 Maggots, 55 Lark, 226 Maid, 28 Lass, 152 Maiden, 185 Lasses, 11 Maids' children, 103 Late fruit, 30 Malmsey, 93 Lathered, 191 Many, 82 Latin, 151 Many ways, 156 Law, 145, 200, 201 March, 212, 213 Law breakers, 200 Mare, 27, 129 Law makers, 200 Marriage, 18, 20, 21 Laws, 200 Married, 114 Lawsuit, 201 Marries, 16 Lawyer, 201, 202 Marry, 15, 17, 21, 23, 24, 28 Lawyers, 189, 201, 202 Martin, 87, 88 Layman, 224 Mass, 139 Leak, 75 Master, 37, 50, 106, 197 Leap, 61 May, 212, 213 Leg, 56, 73 Measure, 62 Lend, 114 Mice, 33 Leveret, 145 Midden, 17, 37 Liar, 48, 173 Mill, 83, 104, 147 Liars, 165 Miller, 106 Lidford, 184 Mind, 39 Lie, lies, 123, 149, 165 Minster, 139 Lifeless, 122 Mire, 128 Likely, 128 Mischief, 64, 71,210 Lion, 37, 48, 83 Miser, 83 Lion's den, 96 Miser's money, 75 Little, 28 Misfortune, 55, 56 Little sticks, 79 Miss, 87 Live, 150 Mither, 26, 27 Live-long, 80 Mixon, 16 London, 217 Money, 67, 184, 186 Longears, 120 Monk, 132, 210, 225 Loose, 65 Monks, 209 234 INDEX. Montgomery, 47 Opinions, 160 Moor, 174, 1 88 Orchard, 113 Morning, 63 : Oven, 120 Moses, 08 ! Ower hot, 82 Mother, 2628, 109, 170 ; Ower mony, 82 Mother-in-law, 25 Ox, 37, 54 Mother of God, 52 Mother's milk, 32 Pacha, 101 Moulter, 106 Pains, 71, 72 Mountain, 128, 226 Pan, 120 Mouse, 69, 77, 85, 128, 154, Paradise, 217 226 Puris, 226 Mousetrap, 173 Path, 123 Much, 78 Patience, 66, 68, 69 Much ado, 128 Pence, 75 Mulberry, 69 Penny, 54, 75, 84 Murder, 178 Peralvillo, 184 Perforce, 90 Naehody, 126 Perhaps, 86 Naethin, 71 Perseverance, 69 Nag, 34 Peter, 45, 101 Nail, 154, 206 Petticoat, 112 Naked, 99 Pettitoes, 115 Naples, 226 Physician, 121, 208 Neck, 55, 85 Pie, 113 Need, 48, 49, 190 Pig, 51, 61, 115, 128 Neighbours, 40 Pilot, 103 Nest, 36 Pinches, 110 Newcastle, 218 Pipers, 50 News, 109 Pitchers, 28 Night, 57, 142 Place, 195 Nile, 54 Plain dealing, 166 Nohodv, 112 Play, 82, 83 Nose, 54, 109, 124, 125 Pleasure, 94 Nothing to do, 72 Plenty, 189 November, 214 Poke, 61 Nuns, 209 Poker, J20 Poland, 224 Offence, 126 Pole, 224 Office, 195, 197 Polichinelle, secret of, 178 Offices, 196 Polish, 225 Old, 149, 206 Poor, 114 Old sores, 63 Poor man, 76 Olive, 142 Pope, 135, 224 One-eyed, 154 Portuguese, 98, 222, 224 Opens, 67 Possession, 145 INDEX. 235 Pot, 45, 103, 120 i Sail, 86 Pots, 205 1 Saint, 131 Pottage, 14 Saints, 197 Potter, 108 Salmon, 113 Poultry, 209 Salt-box, 55 Poverty, 14, 189, 190 Satan, 133 Praise, 142 Saying, 174 Pretty girl, 11 Scolding wife, 22 Priest, 104, 123, 199,209 Scotsman, 216 Priests, 208 Scotsmen, 216 Pudding, 151 Scottish, 218 Puddle, 123 Scratch, 125 Purgatory, 217 Scylla, 153 Puir man, 50 Sea, 86, 103 Purse, 44. 76 Second thoughts, 63 Secret, 177180 Quaker, 162 Self, 104, 106 Self-praise, 175 Rain, 67 September, 214 Piaius, 56 Serpent, 148 Raven, 117, 120 Serves, 197 Raven, belongs to the, 182 Seville, 226 Reason, 156 Shabby, 128 Receiver, 48 Shaft or bolt, 155 Reckons, 140 Shave, 157 Refer, 202 Shaved, 191 Reward, 197 Sheep, 70, 84, 105, 169, 190 Rich, 114, 1S8 Sheriff, 153 Rich man, 44, 188 Shift, 155 Rich year, 215 Shins, 186 Ride, 49 Ship, 75, 151 Ridiculous, 83 Shirt, 112 Right, 57 Shoe, 110 Rings, 68 Shoemaker's wife, 140 Riven dish, 117 Shoes, 84 River, 77, 129, lf>:j, 183, 188 Shoots, 122 Robin Hood, 102 Shot, 123 Rogue, 52, 188 Shoulders, 70 Rogues, 149, 180, 188, 200 Shovel, 120 Rolling stone, 69 Shrew, 103 Rome, 98, 135, 140 Shuts, 67 Rope, 125, 127 Sicker, 123 Rose, 123 Sickness, 132 Sight, 39 Sack, 48 Silence, 168, 169,172 Saddle, 69, 86 Silent, 169 236 INDEX. Silk purse, 34 Steal a horse, 164, 217, 224 Sing, 94 Stealing, 133, 194 Singed cat, 128 Step, 193 Sink a ship, 55 Sticking, 156 Skull, 120 Sting, 117 Skunk, 106 Stinking fish, 108 Slander, 161 Stockfish, 18 Sleep, 63, 206 Stolen, 63, 93 Slight, 155 Store, 75 Slip, 144 Storm, 67 Sloth, 72 Stout, 49 Smoky chimney, 22 Stout heart, 69 Smith, 97 Stretch your arm, 62 Smock, 112 Strike, 138 Smoke, 161 Stuarts, 101 Smokes, 163 Snake, 117 Stupidity, 52 Sublime, 83 Snow, 215 Summer, 214 Soberness, 181 Summers, 215 Soft fire, 81 Sunday, 224 Softly, 79 Supper, 76 Soldier, 197 Supperless, 196 Soldiers, 132 Surety, 64 Son, 28, 187 Swabian, 225 Sons-in-law, 114 Sweet malt, 81 Soon, 30, 82 Swimmer, 123 Sore eye, 207 Sore-eyed, 121 Take-it-easy, 80 Sores, old, 63 Tarry breeks, 50 Sorrow, 55 Teeth, 16, 173 Sour, 129 Tenterden steeple, 220 Sow, 34, 49, 189 Tether, 145 Spain, 224, 225 Thanks, 197 Spaniard, 217, 223, 224 Thief, 48, 116, 183, 194 Spanish, 222 Thieves, 24, 184 Speech, 168 Think, 168 Spoil, 98 Tholes, 69 Spoil a horn, 62, 86 Thorn, 30 Spoleto, 217 Thorns, 101 Spoon, 86 Threatened, 171, 172 Spots, 121, 122 Threats, 173 Sprat, 113 Three, 49 Spune, 62, 65 Threshold, 193 Squints, 10 Thriftless, 76 Stable door, 63 Thunder, 215 Steal, 115 Ties, 65 237 Tiles, 119 Venom, 35 Time, 67, 89, 138, 139 Vicar of Bray, 134 Tippler, 123 Vicars, 130 Tired, 69 Vine, ]44 Tod, 106 Vinegar, 81 To-day, 138, 145 Virtue, 202 Tod's hide, 183 Voluntary, 89 Tom Noddy's, 178 Tongue, 16, 131, 169, 170, Wales, 222 173 Wall, 59 To-morrow, 138, 145 Walls, 180 Too dear, 95 Want, 75 Too many, 82, 154 Wants, 189 Too much, 77, 79, 131 War, 151, 217 Tossed, 54 Wasp, 35 Toughest, 69 Waste, 75 Traitors' bridge, 222 Water, 59, 93, 100, 104," 120, Transplanted, 69 181, 144, 147, 182, 188 Tree, 70 Waters, 129 Treve, 106 Way, 89 Trust, 65, 107 Weakest, 59 Truth, 166 Wed, 16, 20 Tub, 105 Wedding, 24 Tumble, 54 Wee fire, 79 Turn, 50 Welcome, 41 Turn one's back, 187 Well, a, 64 Tuscan, 223 Wells, 100 Twig, 30 Welsh, 216 Two, 49 Welshman, 216 Two anchors, 154 West, 83 Two faces, 133 Wheelbarrow, 103 Two heads, 15'J Whistle, 95 Two parishes, 133 White flour, 35 Two strings, 154 Widow, 18, 24 Two to one, 49 Wife, 2, J7 20, 2224, 152 Wife's, 3, 7 Ugly, 9, 10 Wight man, 89 Unhappy, 54, 146 Wilful, 93 Unknown, 62 Will, 89, 90, 139 Unlikely, 12R Willing, 89, 115 Unlucky, 183 Willing horse, 70 Unmannerly, 40 Wind, 56, 86, 174, 206 Unwilling, 90 Winding-sheets, 54 Use, 75, 96, 97 Wine, 43, 175, 176, 181, 214 Winters, 215 Wise men, 197 238 Wist, 62 Worst, 57, 172, 174,1^1 Wit, 75, 148, 181 Wren, 145 Wives, 22 Write, 169 Wolf, 32, 70, 163, 169 Wrong, 57 Wolves, 99 Wytes, 123 Woman, 1,2,4,6,7,9,11,210 Women, 14, 6, 7, 10, 208 Yew bow, 68 Woo, 17, 20 Yorkshire, 217 Wood, 142 Yorkshireman, 217 Woodie, 182 Young, 206 Wooing, 21 Youth, 29, -31 Wool, 128 ' Yowl, 57 Words, 168, 172, 174, 181 Work. 82, 90 Zago, 219 World, 58 THE END. 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' . 7 Dictionaries 13 Drawing Books 23 Dreamland 1 Edgar's Boyhood of Great Men . . 18 Footprints of Famous Men 18 Boy Princes 18 History for Eoys .... 18 Little Boy's Own Book . . 19 Treasury 21 PATEBXOSTER Row, LONDON.] W. KENT AND CO.'S CATALOGUE. IXDEX Continued.] Little Mary's Lesson Book ... 21 Reid's (Capt.M ) Young Voyageurs 17 orcst joules . if i>usn -lioys . . 17 Relics of Genius 6 Miles Standish . . . 3, 9 Lorrin, and other Poems .... 10 Rival (The) Kings 19 Robinson Crusoe 11,20 Mackav's (Charles) Egeria ... 10 Round Games 11 Town Lyrics . 10 St. Leonard .... 26 Scott's Poems ... 5 Massey's (G.) Babe Christabel . . 9 Craigcrook Castle ... 10 Burns (Robert) 9 Mayhew's Acting Charades ... 10 Shakspeare, Heroines 3 Shilling's Worth of Sense .... 11 Shreds and Patches . . 26 ~ ,, , -. J vrrl * lrp ic W 1 f < ' * 1 ft ^' fl * "tii* \\~ " o Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia . 26 Soyer (Alex.) Life of ... .27 Merrie Days of England . . . 1 Spanish without a Master . . . . ' 29 Sugsestions in Design ... 12 Mia and Charlie 20 Miller's Daughter . . 2 Taylor's (Jeff.) Young Islanders . 20 Miller's (T ) Poems for Children . 21 Milton's Poetical Works .... 4 L' Allegro and 11 Penseroso 2 Timbs's Curiosities of London . . 16 Curiosities of History . . 16 Musgrave's Ramble in Normandy . 7 National Magazine . . 30 School Days of Eminent Men 16 Curiosities of Science 16 ofdbu'ck's Adventures 15 Old Faces in New Masks .... 10 Painters (The) of All Nations His- Painting Popularly Explained 16 Traditions of London 10 Panoramic View of Palestine . . 24 Parlour Magic . . 10 20 Waverlev Gallerr 3 Weather' Book the 11 Pellatt on Glass-making .... 4 Phillips' s Etchings of Familiar Life 23 Webster (Dauiel) Orations ... 26 Webster's Quarto Dictionaries . . 13 Williams's Euclid Portraits of Ladies of Distinction . 4 Queens of Prussia, Memoirs of the. 26 Winkles's English Cathedrals . . 8 Women of the Bible 4 Eecollections of a Detective. Se- cond Series . 27 Worsley's Little Drawing Book . . 23 Reid's (Capt M ) Desert Home . . 17 THOMAS HAKSII.D, Printer, SaJisl nry Square, Flwt Street, London. 86, FLEET STUEET, AND PATERNOSTER Row, LOXDOX. 1711 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILIT A 000025633 9