LUCK. FORTUNE. MISFORTUNE.
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 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]
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.
There is a local version of this proverb:—
It is an ill wind that blows no good to Cornwall.
On the rock-bound coasts of that shire almost any wind brought gain to the wreckers. We have seen it somewhere alleged that the general proverb grew out of the local one; but this is certainly not the fact, for the former exists in other languages. Its Italian equivalent[242] agrees closely with it in form as well as in spirit. The French say, "Misfortune is good for something;"[243] the Spaniards, "There is no ill but comes for good;"[244] and, "I broke my leg, perhaps for my good."[245]
Our worst misfortunes are those that never befall us.
"Never give way to melancholy: nothing encroaches more. I fight vigorously. One great remedy is to take short views of life. Are you happy now? Are you likely to remain so till this evening? or next week? or next month? or next year? Then why destroy present happiness by a distant misery which may never come at all, or you may never live to see? For every substantial grief has twenty shadows, and most of them shadows of your own making."—Sydney Smith.
Ye're fleyed [frightened] o' the day ye ne'er saw.—Scotch.
You cry out before you are hurt.
Never yowl till you're hit.—Ulster.
Let your trouble tarry till its own day comes.
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
In French, "À chaque jour suffit sa peine," words which were frequently in Napoleon's mouth at St. Helena. An Eastern proverb says, "He is miserable once who feels it, but twice who fears it before it comes."
When bale is highest, boot is nighest.
"Bale" is obsolete as a substantive, but retains a place in current English as the root of the adjective "baleful." The proverb means that
When the night's darkest the day's nearest.
The darkest hour is that before dawn.
When things come to the worst they'll mend.
They must change, for that is the law of nature, and any change in them must be for the better. Thus, "By dint of going wrong all will come right" (French).[246] "Ill is the eve of well" (Italian);[247] and "It is at the narrowest part of the defile that the valley begins to open" (Persian). "When the tale of bricks is doubled Moses comes" (Hebrew).
He that's down, down with him.
Such is the way of the world—"the oppressed oppressing." "Him that falls all the world run over" (German).[248] "He that has ill luck gets ill usage" (Old French).[249] "All bite the bitten dog" (Portuguese).[250] "When a dog is drowning everybody brings him drink" (French).[251]
Knock a man down, and kick him for falling.
A sort of treatment like what they call in France "The custom of Lorris: the beaten pay the fine."[252] It was enacted by the charter of Lorris in the Orléanais, conferred by Philip the Fair, that any man claiming to have money due to him from another, but unable to produce proof of the debt, might challenge the alleged debtor to a judicial combat with fists. The beaten combatant had judgment given against him, which always included a fine to the lord of the manor.
"The ill-clad to windward" (French).[253]
The weakest goes to the wall,
which is the worst place in a crowd and a crush. Also,
Where the dyke is lowest men go over.
"Where the dam is lowest the water first runs over" (Dutch).[254] People overrun and oppress those who are least able to resist.
When the tree falls every man goes with his hatchet.
"When the tree is down everybody gathers wood" (Latin).[255] "If my beard is burnt, others try to light their pipes at it" (Turkish).
Where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered together.
"'We are, then, irremediably ruined, Mr. Oldbuck?' (The speaker is Miss Wardour, in the 'Antiquary.')
"'Irremediably? I hope not; but the instant demand is very large, and others will doubtless pour in.'
"'Ay, never doubt that, Monkbarns,' said Sir Arthur; 'where the slaughter is, the eagles will be gathered together. I am like a sheep which I have seen fall down a precipice, or drop down from sickness: if you had not seen a single raven or hooded crow for a fortnight before, he will not be on the heather ten minutes before half a dozen will be pecking out his eyes (and he drew his hand over his own), and tearing out his heart-strings before the poor devil has time to die.'"
Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.—Scotch.
Blame yourself only for the consequences of your own folly. Edgar, in Lear, says, "This is the excellent foppery of the world! That when we are sick in fortune we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by a forced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion!"