Custom. Habit. Use
Use will make a man live in a lion’s den.
Custom is second nature.
Cicero says nearly the same thing,373 and the thought has been happily amplified by Sydney Smith. “There is no degree of disguise or distortion which human nature may not be made to assume from habit; it grows in every direction in which it is trained, and accommodates itself to every circumstance which caprice or design places in its way. It is a plant with such various aptitudes, and such opposite propensities, that it flourishes in a hothouse or the open air; is terrestrial or aquatic, parasitical or independent; looks well in exposed situations, thrives in protected ones; can bear its own luxuriance, admits of amputation; succeeds in perfect liberty, and can be bent down into any forms of art; it is so flexible and ductile, so accommodating and vivacious, that of two methods of managing it—completely opposite—neither the one nor the other need be considered as mistaken and bad. Not that habit can give any new principle; but of those numerous principles which do exist in our nature it entirely determines the order and force.”374
Once a use and ever a custom.
“Continuance becomes usage” (Italian).375 Whatever we do often we become more and more apt to do, till at last the propensity to the act becomes irresistible, though the performance of it may have ceased to give any pleasure. In Fielding’s “Life of Jonathan Wild” the great thief is represented as playing at cards with the Count, a professed gambler. “Such was the power of habit over the minds of these illustrious persons, that Mr. Wild could not keep his hands out of the Count’s pockets, though he knew they were empty; nor could the Count abstain from palming a card, though he was well aware Mr. Wild had no money to pay him.” “To change a habit is like death” (Spanish).376
Hand in use is father o’ lear [learning, skill].—Scotch.
Practice makes perfect.
“By working in the smithy one becomes a smith” (Latin, French).377 “Use makes the craftsman” (Spanish, German).378 An emir had bought a left eye of a glassmaker, and was vexed at finding that he could not see with it. The man begged him to give it a little time; he could not expect that it would see all at once so well as the right eye, which had been for so many years in the habit of it. We take this whimsical story from Coleridge, who does not tell us in what Oriental Joe Miller he found it.
No man is his craft’s master the first day.
But some people fancy themselves masters born, like “The Portuguese apprentice, who does not know how to sew, and wants to cut out” (Spanish).379
You must spoil before you spin.
“One learns by failing” (French).380 “He that stumbles, if he does not fall, quickens his pace” (Spanish).381
Eith to learn the cat to the kirn.—Scotch.
That is, it is easy to teach the cat the way to the churn. Bad habits are easily acquired.
A bad custom is like a good cake—better broken than kept.
On this proverb is built, perhaps, that remark of Hamlet’s which has troubled some hypercritical commentators, “A custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.” An energetic Spanish proverb counsels us to “Break the leg of a bad habit.”382
At Rome do as Rome does.
“Wherever you be, do as you see” (Spanish).383 A very terse German proverb, which can only be paraphrased in English, signifies that whatever is customary in any country is proper and becoming there; or, as we might say, “After the land’s manner is mannerly.”384 The Livonians say, “In the land of the naked people are ashamed of clothes.” “So many countries, so many customs” (French).385 In a Palais Royal farce a captain’s wife is deploring her husband, who has been eaten by the Caffres. Her servant observes, by way of consolation, Mais, madame, que voulez-vous? Chaque peuple a ses usages (“Well, well, ma’am, after all, every people has its own manners and customs”).
Tell me the company you keep, and I’ll tell you what you are.
Tell me with whom thou goest, and I’ll tell thee what thou doest.
“He that lives with cripples learns to limp” (Dutch).386 “He that goes with wolves learns to howl” (Spanish);387 and “He that lies down with dogs gets up with fleas” (Spanish).388
As good be out of the world as out of the fashion.
Mrs. Hutchinson tells us that, although her husband acted with the Puritan party, they would not allow him to be religious because his hair was not in their cut. The world will more readily forgive a breach of all the Ten Commandments than a violation of one of its own conventional rules. “Fools invent fashions, and wise men follow them” (French).389 “Better be mad with all the world than wise alone” (French).390
The used key is always bright.
“‘If I rest, I rust,’ it says” (German).391
Drawn wells have sweetest water;
but
Standing pools gather filth.
Drawn wells are seldom dry.
Footnotes
373 Ferme in naturam consuetudo vestitur.—(De Invent. i. 2.)
374 “Lectures on Moral Philosophy.”
375 Continuanza diventa usanza.
376 Mudar costumbre a par de muerte.
377 Fabricando fit faber. En forgeant on devient forgeron.
378 El usar saca oficial. Uebung macht den Meister.
379 Aprendiz de Portugal, no sabe cozer y quiere cortar.
380 On apprend en faillant.
381 Quien estropieça, si no cae, el camino adelanta.
382 A mal costumbre, quebrarle la pierna.
383 Por donde fueres, haz como vieres.
384 Ländlich, sittlich.
385 Tant de pays, tant de guises.
386 Die bij kreupelen woont, leert hinken.
387 Quien con lobos anda, á aullar se enseña.
388 Quien con perros se echa, con pulgas se levanta.
389 Les fous inventent les modes, et les sages les suivent.
390 Il vaut mieux être fou avec tous que sage tout seul.
391 Rast ich, so rost ich, sagt der Schlüssel.