Walter K. Kelly

“ It is not wise to overstrain authority, or to drive even the weakest or most submissive to desperation.
A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.
Put a coward on his mettle and he'll fight the devil.
Make a bridge of gold for the flying enemy.
Extremes meet.
A proverb of universal application in the physical as well as the moral world. Every one knows the saying of Napoleon, "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step." ”

“ It would certainly be "not a little remarkable," if it were true, "that such a confession should have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation;" but the fact is that nothing more is meant by the proverb than what the Inquisition itself might sanction. It is only a pointed way of saying that anything, however good, is liable to be used mischievously. ”

“ There is good reason for this if the Italian proverb is true, "Women are wise offhand, and fools on reflection." [10] They have less logical minds than men, but surpass them in quickness of intuition, having, says Dean Trench, "what Montaigne ascribes to them in a remarkable word, l'esprit prime-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," [11] 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." ”

“ 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) . [102]
Marry above your match and you get a master.
"In the rich woman's house she commands always, and he never" (Spanish) . [103] "Who takes a wife for her [24] dower turns his back on freedom" (French) . [104] But every married man is in this plight, for
"He that has a wife has a master." ”

“ We are told in several languages "That the secret of two is God's secret—the secret of three is all the world's;" [678] and the Spaniards hold that "What three know every creature knows." [679] 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." ”

“ 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 monuments 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." ”

“ Heavy eaters, hard thinkers, often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our own, with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if it could—many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter. ”

“ It is not good praising a ford till a man be over.
Don't halloo till you are out of the wood.
"Don't cry 'Hey!' till you are over the ditch" (German) . [529] "Look to the end" (Latin) . [530] "No man can with certainty be called happy before his death," as the Grecian sage told Crœsus. "Call me not olive till you see me gathered" (Spanish) ." [531]
To build castles in the air.
To let imagination beguile us with visionary prospects. The metaphor is intelligible to everybody, but that in the French equivalent, "To build castles in Spain," [532] requires explanation. ”

“ It is a popular notion that a mild winter is less healthy than a frosty one; but the Registrar-General's returns prove that it is quite the contrary. The mortality of the winter months is always in proportion to the intensity of the cold. The proverb, therefore, [215] must be given up as a fallacy. There is some truth in this of the Germans, "A green Christmas, a white Easter." The probability is that a very mild winter will be followed by an inclement spring. ”

“ A Scottish man and a Newcastle grindstone travel all the world over.
Newcastle grindstones were long reputed the best of their kind. Another version of the proverb associates them with rats and red herrings, things which are very widely diffused over the globe, but not more so than Scotchmen.
Three great evils come out of the north—a cold wind, a cunning knave, and a shrinking cloth.
He's an Aberdeen's man; he may take his word again.—Scotch.
An Aberdeen's man ne'er stands to the word that hurts him.—Scotch. ”

“ The mixon 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is an Italian woman's belief that "It is better to have a husband without love than with jealousy." [50]
No folly to being in love.—Welsh.
"To love and to be wise is impossible" (Spanish) ; [51] [13] or, as an antique French proverb says, the two things have not the same abode. [52] This is the creed of those who have not themselves been lovers. ”

“ 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" [162] (Spanish) . [599] The Arabs say, "Take a bit of mud, dab it against the wall: if it does not stick it will leave its mark;" and we have a similar proverb derived from the Latin: [600] —
Throw much dirt, and some will stick. ”

“ The cunning of the sex is equal to their obstinacy. "Women know a point more than the devil" (Italian) . [23] What wonder, then, if "A bag of fleas is easier to keep guard over than a woman?" (German) . [24] The wilfulness of woman is pleasantly hinted at in the Scotch proverb, "'Gie her her will, or she'll burst,' quoth the gudeman when his wife was dinging him." ”

“ 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 [45] either very poor or very rich" (Spanish) . [191] "Now that I have a ewe and a lamb everybody says to me, 'Good day, Peter'" (Spanish) . [192] 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. ”

“ The French, in spite of their pretended gallantry, have the coarseness to declare that "A man of straw is worth a woman of gold;" [5] 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." ”

“ He that loves law will get his fill of it.
Agree, for the law is costly.
Law's costly; tak a pint and 'gree.—Scotch.
Lord Mansfield declared that if any man claimed a field from him he would give it up, provided the concession were kept secret, rather than engage in proceedings at law. Hesiod, in admonishing his brother always to prefer a friendly accommodation to a lawsuit, gave to the world the paradoxical proverb, "The half is more than the whole." Very often "A lean agreement is better than a fat lawsuit" (Italian) . ”

“ A lawyer is not apt to be argumentative; but an actor is. A woman that is all smiles and graces is a vixen at heart: snakes fascinate. A stranger that is obsequious and over-civil without apparent cause is treacherous: cats that purr are apt to bite and scratch. Pride is one thing, assumption is another; the latter must always get the cold shoulder, for whoever shows it is no gentleman: men never affect to be what they are, but what they are not. The only man who really is what he appears to be is—a gentleman." [467]
The Livonians say, "The bald pate talks most of hair;" ”

“ 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 Herzegovinian 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 wife." ”

“ 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) . [180] "If you love me, John, your acts will tell me so" (Spanish) . [181] "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.—Scotch. ”