Uncertainty of the Future. Hope
Man proposes, God disposes.523
“There’s a divinity that shapes men’s ends,
Rough hew them how they will.”
He that reckons without his host must reckon again.
Don’t reckon your chickens before they are hatched.
Some of the eggs may be addled. Remember the story of Alnaschar.
Sune enough to cry “chick” when it’s out o’ the shell.—Scotch.
Gut nae fish till ye get them.—Scotch.
“Cry no herring till you have it in the net” (Dutch).524 “First catch your hare,” says Mrs. Glasse, and then you may settle how you will have it cooked. The Greeks and Romans thought it not wise “To sing triumph before the victory.”525 It is a rash bargain “To sell the bird on the bough” (Italian);526 or “The bearskin before you have caught the bear” (Italian),527 as Æsop has demonstrated. Finally, “Unlaid eggs are uncertain chickens” (German).528
Praise a fair day at night.
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. The Abbé Morellet ascribes the origin of this phrase to the general belief in the boundless wealth of Spain after she had become mistress of the mines of Mexico and Peru. This is plausible but wrong, for the “Roman de la Rose,” which was published long before the discovery of America, contains this line, Lors feras chasteaulx en Espagne. M. Quitard says that the proverb dates from the latter part of the eleventh century, when Henri de Bourgogne crossed the Pyrenees at the head of a great number of knights to win glory and plunder from the Infidels, and received from Alfonso, king of Castile, in reward for his services, the hand of that sovereign’s daughter, Theresa, and the county of Lusitania, which, under his son Alfonso Henriquez, became the kingdom of Portugal. The success of these illustrious adventurers excited the emulation of the warlike French nobles, and set every man dreaming of fiefs to be won, and castles to be built in Spain. Similar feelings had been awakened some years before by the conquest of England by William of Normandy, and then the French talked proverbially of “Building castles in Albany,”533 that is, in Albion. It is worthy of remark that previously to the eleventh century there were hardly any castles built in Christian Spain, or by the Saxons in England. The new adventurers had to build for themselves.
Don’t tell the devil too much of your mind.
Be not too forward to proclaim your intentions. “Tell your business, and leave the devil alone to do it for you” (Italian).534 “A wise man,” Selden tells us, “should never resolve upon anything—at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot arrive at that he is ashamed. How many things did the king resolve, in his declaration concerning Scotland, never to do, and yet did them all! A man must do according to accidents and emergencies. Never tell your resolution beforehand, but when the cast is thrown play it as well as you can to win the game you are at. ’Tis but folly to study how to play size ace when you know not whether you shall throw it or no.” “Muddy though it be, say not, ‘Of this water I will not drink’” (Spanish).535 “There is no use in saying, ‘Such a way I will not go, or such water I will not drink’” (Italian).536
There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip.
“Between the hand and the mouth the soup is often spilt” (French).537 “Wine poured out is not swallowed” (French).538 These three proverbs are derived from the same Greek original, the English one being nearest to it in form. A king of Samos tasked his slaves unmercifully in laying out a vineyard, and one of them, exasperated by this ill usage, prophesied that his master would never drink of the wine of that vineyard. Eager to confute this prediction, the king took the first grapes produced by his vines, pressed them into a cup in the slave’s presence, and derided him as a false prophet. The slave replied, “Many things happen between the cup and the lip;” and these words became a proverb, for just then a cry was raised that a wild boar had broken into the vineyard, and the king, setting down the untested cup, went to meet the beast, and was killed in the encounter.
God send you readier meat than running hares.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Better a wren in the hand than a crane in the air.—Irish and French.539
Cranes were in much request for the table down to the end of the fourteenth century, if not later. “Better a leveret in the kitchen than a wild boar in the forest” (Livonian). “Better is an egg to-day than a pullet to-morrow” (Italian).540 “One here-it-is is better than two you-shall-have-it’s” (French).541
Possession is nine points of the law.
And there are only ten of them in all. Others reckon possession as eleven points, the whole number being twelve. “Him that is in possession God helps” (Italian).542 “Possession is as good as title” (French).543
I’ll not change a cottage in possession for a kingdom in reversion.
Better haud by a hair nor draw by a tether.—Scotch.
He that waits for dead men’s shoes may long go barefoot.
He gaes lang barefoot that wears dead men’s shoon.—Scotch.
“He hauls at a long rope who desires another’s death” (French).544 “He who waits for another’s trencher eats a cold meal” (Catalan).545
Live, horse, and you’ll get grass.546
“Die not, O mine ass, for the spring is coming, and with it clover” (Turkish). Unfortunately, “For the hungry, wait is a hard word” (German);547 and
While the grass grows the steed starves.
The old horse may die waiting for new grass.
Hope holds up the head.
Hope is the bread of the unhappy.
Were it not for hope the heart would break.
He that lives on hope has a slim diet.
Aubrey relates that Lord Bacon, being in York House garden, looking on fishers as they were throwing their net, asked them what they would take for their draught. They answered so much. His lordship would offer them only so much. They drew up their net, and in it were only two or three little fishes. His lordship then told them it had been better for them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped to have had a better draught; but, said his lordship,—
“Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper.”
“Hope and expectation are a fool’s income” (Danish).548
Hopes deferred hang the heart on tenter hooks.
“He gives twice who gives quickly” (Latin);549 and “A prompt refusal has in part the grace of a favour granted” (Latin).550
All is not at hand that helps.
We cannot foresee whence help may come to us, nor always trace back to their sources the advantages we actually enjoy. “Water comes to the mill from afar” (Portuguese).551 On the other hand, “Far water does not put out near fire” (Italian);552 and “Better is a near neighbour than a distant cousin” (Italian).553 “Friends living far away are no friends” (Greek).554
Footnotes
523 In French, L’homme propose, Dieu dispose; in German, Man denkt’s, Gott lenkt’s. The Spanish form is a little different: Los dichos en nos, los hechos en Dios.
524 Roep geen haring eer hij in’t net is.
525 Ante victoriam canere triumphum.
526 Vender l’uccello in sù la frasca.
527 Non vender la pelle dell’ orso prima di pigliarlo.
528 Ungelegte Eier sind ungewisse Hünnlein.
529 Rufe nicht “Juch!” bis du über den Graben bist.
530 Respice finem.
531 No me digas oliva hasta que me veas cogida.
532 Faire des châteaux en Espagne.
533 Faire des chasteaulx en Albanie.
534 Di il fatto tuo, e lascia far al diavolo.
535 Por turbia que esté, no digas desta agua no bebere.
536 Non giova a dire per tal via non passerò, ni di tal acqua beverò.
537 De la main à la bouche se perd souvent la soupe.
538 Vin versé n’est pas avalé.
539 Moineau en main vaut mieux que grue qui vole.
540 E meglio aver oggi un uovo che domani una gallina.
541 Mieux vaut un tenez que deux vous l’aurez.
542 A chi è in tenuta, Dio gli aiuta.
543 Possession vaut titre.
544 A longue corde tire, qui d’autrui mort désire.
545 Qui escudella d’altri espera, freda la menja.
546 In Italian, Caval non morire, che erba da venire.
547 Dem Hungrigen ist “Harr” ein hart Wort.
548 Haabe og vente er Giekerente.
549 Bis dat, qui cito dat.
550 Pars est beneficii quod petitur si cito neges.—Publius Syrus.
551 De lomge vem agoa a o moinho.
552 Acqua lontana non spegne il fuoco vicino.
553 Meglio un prossimo vicino che un lontano cugino.
554 Τηλου ναιοντες φιλοι ουκ εισι φιλοι.