Natural Character
What’s Bred in the Bone 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).136 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;”137—he turns grey with age. The Spaniards say he “loses his teeth, but not his inclinations.”138 “What is sucked in with the mother’s milk runs out in the shroud” (Spanish).139 Horace’s well-known line,—
“Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret”—
“Though you cast out nature with a fork, it will still return”—has very much the air of a proverb versified. 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 (?). The Orientals ascribe to Mahomet the saying, “Believe, if 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).140 “What is born of a cat will catch mice” (French, Italian).141 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).142 “It is kind father to him,” as the Scotch say. “Good blood cannot lie” (French);143 its generous instincts are sure to display themselves on fit occasions. On the other hand, “The son of an ass brays twice a day.”144 We need not say what people that stroke of grave humour belongs to.
Drive a cow to the ha’ and she’ll run to the byre.—Scotch.
She will be more at home there than in the drawing-room. “A sow prefers bran to roses” (French).145 “Set a frog on a golden stool, and off it hops again into the pool” (German).146
There’s no making a silk purse of a sow’s ear;
or, “A good arrow of a pig’s tail” (Spanish);147 or, “A sieve of an ass’s tail” (Greek).
A carrion kite will never make a good hawk.148
An inch o’ a nag is worth a span o’ an aver.—Scotch.
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’ll be never the wiser.
“To wash an ass’s head is loss of suds” (French).149 “The malady that is incurable is folly” (Spanish).150
There’s no washing a blackamoor white.
“Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog” (French).151
A hog in armour is still but a hog.
An ape is an ape, a varlet’s 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 whatever the wasp sucks turns to venom” (Portuguese).152
Eagles catch no flies.
Literally translated from a Latin adage153 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 prætor takes no heed of very small matters,”154 for his was a superior court, and did not try cases of minor importance. Our modern lawyers have retained the classical adage, only substituting the word “law” for “prætor.” They say, “De minimis non curat lex,” which might, perhaps, be freely translated, “Lawyers don’t stick at trifles.”
Footnotes
136 Chi l’ha per natura, fin alla fossa dura.
137 Lupus pilum mutat non mentem.
138 El lobo pierde los dientes, mas no los mientes.
139 Lo que en la leche se mama, en la mortaja so derrama.
140 Chi nasce di gallina, convien che rozzuola.
141 Chi naquit chat, court après les souris. Chi nasce di gatta sorice piglia.
142 Bon chien chasse de race.
143 Bon sang ne peut mentir.
144 El hijo del asino dos veces rozna al dia.
145 Truie aime mieux bran que roses.
146 Setz einen Frosch auf goldnen Stuhl.
Er hupft doch wieder in den Pfuhl.
147 De rabo de puerco nunca buen virote.
148 On ne saurait faire d’une buse un épervier.
149 À laver la tête d’un âne, on perd sa lessive.
150 El mal que no se puede sañar, es locura.
151 Lavez chien, peignez chien, toujours n’est chien que chien.
152 Quanto chupa a abelha, mel torna, e quanto a aranha, peçonha.
153 Aquila non capit muscas.
154 De minimis non curat prætor.