EXPERIENCE. Bought wit is best. Wit once bought is worth twice taught. Hang a dog on a crabtree, and he'll never love verjuice. A burnt child dreads the fire. · 2 1 Fear is so imaginative that it starts even at the ghost of a remembered danger. "A scalded dog dreads cold water" (French, Italian, Spanish). "A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow" (Italian). "Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard alarms" (Italian). "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).* 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 échaudé craint l'eau froide. 2 Il can battuto dal bastone, ha paura dell' ombra. Chi della serpa è punto, ha paura della lucertola. • Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas. EXPERIENCE. ass does not stumble twice over the same stone' (French). "Unfairly does he blame Neptune who suffers shipwreck a second time" (Publius Syrus)." 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 afterwit. "Happy he who is made wary by others' perils " (Latin).* Old birds are not to be caught with chaff. Old crows are hard to catch" (German).5 nets don't catch old birds" (Italian).“ I'm ower auld a cat to draw a strae [straw] afore my nose. 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 âne ne trébuche pas deux fois sur la même pierre. 2 Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit. 3*Ος ἐπεί κακὸν ἔχε νόησε. Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. 5 Alte Krähen sind schwer zu fangen. 6 Nuova rete non piglia uccello vecchio. 66 proverb, growing out of the following story :-A young rustic told his priest at confession that he had broken down a neighbour's hedge to get at a blackbird's nest. The priest asked if he had taken away the young birds. No," said he, "they were hardly grown enough. I will let them alone until Saturday evening." No more was said on the subject, but when Saturday evening came, the young fellow found the nest empty, and readily guessed who it was that had forestalled him. The next time he went to confession he had to tell something in which a young girl was partly concerned. "Oh!" said his ghostly father; "how old is she?” Seventeen." "Good-looking?" "The prettiest girl in the village." "What is her name? Where does she live?" the confessor hastily inquired; and then he got for answer the phrase which has passed into a proverb, “À d'autres, dénicheur de merles!" which may be paraphrased, "Try that upon somebody else, Mr. filcher of blackbirds." 66 66 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). Live and learn. The langer we live the mair ferlies [wonders] we see. 1 Cane vecchio non baia indarno. 2 Il n'est chasse que de vieux chiens. 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. 66 66 Don't talk Latin 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 before clerks" (French),3 or house" (Spanish).* 66 Arabic in the Moor's 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 è dell'arte, può ragionar della. Il ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs. CHOICE. DILEMMA. COMPARISON. Pick and choose, and take the worst. The lass that has mony wooers aft wales [chooses] the warst. -Scotch. "He Refuse a wife with one fault, and take one with two.-Welsh. “He that has a choice has trouble" (Dutch).1 that chooses takes the worst" (French). 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. |