=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.=