=Luck is all.=
A desperate doctrine, based on that one-sided view of human affairs
which is expressed in Byron's parody of a famous passage in Addison's
_Cato_:--
"'Tis not in mortals to command success;
But do you more, Sempronius--_don't_ deserve it;
And take my word you'll have no jot the less."
"The worst pig gets the best acorn" (Spanish).[219] "A good bone
never falls to a good dog" (French);[220] and "The horses eat oats
that don't earn them" (German).[221] But this last proverb has also
another application. "Other rules may vary," says Sydney Smith, "but
this is the only one you will find without exception--that in this
world the salary or reward is always in the inverse ratio of the duties
performed."
=The more rogue the more luck.=
=The devil's children have the devil's luck.=
But their prosperity is false and fleeting. "The devil's meal runs half
to bran" (French).[222]
=God sends fools fortune.=
It is to this version of the Latin adage, _Fortuna favet fatuis_
("Fortune favours fools"), that _Touchstone_ alludes in his reply to
_Jacques_:--
"'No, sir,' quoth he;
'Call me not fool till Heaven hath sent me fortune.'"
The Spaniards express this popular belief by a striking figure: "The
mother of God appears to fools."[223] The Germans say, "Fortune and
women are fond of fools;"[224] and the converse of this holds good
likewise, since "Fortune makes a fool of him whom she too much favours"
(Latin);[225] and so do women sometimes. When we consider how much what
is called success in life depends on getting into one of "the main
grooves of human affairs," we can account for the common remark that
blockheads thrive better in the world than clever people, and that
"Jack gets on by his stupidity" (German).[226] It is all the difference
of going by railway and walking over a ploughed field, whether you
adopt common courses or set up one for yourself"--which is most likely
to be done by people of superior abilities. "You will see * * * * most
inferior persons highly placed in the army, in the church, in office,
at the bar. They have somehow got upon the line, and have moved on
well, with very little original motive powers of their own. Do not let
this make you talk as if merit were utterly neglected in these or other
professions--only that getting well into the groove will frequently do
instead of any great excellence."[227] With this explanation we are
prepared to admit that there is some reason in the Spanish adage, "God
send you luck, my son, and little wit will serve your turn."[228]
=It is better to be lucky than wise.=
=It is better to be born lucky than rich.=
=Hap and ha'penny is warld's gear eneuch.=--_Scotch._
"The lucky man's bitch litters pigs" (Spanish).[229]
=Happy go lucky.=
=The happy [lucky] man canna be harried.=--_Scotch._
The lucky man cannot be ruined. Seeming disasters will often prove
to be signal strokes of good fortune for him. Such a man will have
cause to say, "The ox that tossed me threw me upon a good place"
(Spanish).[230]
=He is like a cat, he always falls on his feet.=
=Cast ye owre the house riggen, and ye'll fa' on your
feet.=--_Scotch._
=Give a man luck, and throw him into the sea.=
"Pitch him into the Nile," say the Arabs, "and he will come up with a
fish in his mouth;" and the Germans, "If he threw up a penny on the
roof, down would come a dollar to him."[231]
=What is worse than ill luck?=
=An unhappy man's cart is eith to tumble.=--_Scotch._
That is, easily upset. It happens always to some people, as Coleridge
said of himself, to have their bread and butter fall on the buttered
side. An Irishman of this ill-starred class is commonly supposed to
have been the author of the saying,--
=He that is born under a threepenny planet will never be worth a
groat.=
=If my father had made me a hatter men would have been born without
heads.=
But the thought is not original in our language: an unlucky Arab
had long ago declared, "If I were to trade in winding-sheets no one
would die." A man of this stamp "Falls on his back and breaks his
nose" (French).[232] The Basques say of him, "Maggots breed in his
salt-box;" the Provençals, "He would sink a ship freighted with
crucifixes;" the Italians, "He would break his neck upon a straw."[233]
=Misfortunes seldom come single.=
=Misfortunes come by forties.=--_Welsh._
=Ill comes upon waur's back.=--_Scotch._
"Fortune is not content with crossing any man once," says Publius
Syrus.[234] "After losing, one loses roundly," say the French.[235]
The Spaniards have three remarkable proverbs to express the same
conviction:--"Whither goest thou, Misfortune? To where there is
more."[236] "Whither goest thou, Sorrow? Whither I am wont."[237]
"Welcome, Misfortune, if thou comest alone."[238] The Italian
equivalents are numerous: _e.g._, "One ill calls another."[239] "One
misfortune is the eve of another."[240] "A misfortune and a friar are
seldom alone."[241]
=It can't rain but it pours.=
Good fortune, as well as bad, is said to come in floods. "If the wind
blows it enters at every crevice" (Arab).
=It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.=