The virtue of industry and the vice of sloth are factors in life that have not by any means escaped the notice of the builders-up of our proverb lore and store. The praise and inculcation of industry may very happily be seen, for example, in this gleaning: "Every man's task is his life-preserver," for rust consumes more than use wears. "He who serves well need not fear to ask his wages"; "Those that trust to their neighbours may wait for their harvest"; "It is better to do the thing than to wish it done"; "A wise man makes more opportunities than he finds"; "He that will eat the kernel must crack the nut"; "Learn to labour and to wait, but learn to labour first"; "Well begun is half done";[208:A] "God calls men when they are busy, Satan when they are idle"; "Work provides easy chairs for old age"; "Time wasted is existence, used is life"; "Save yourself pains by taking pains"; "Things don't turn up, they must be turned up"; "If you don't open the door to the devil he goes away"; "One grain fills not the sack, but it helps"; "Prudence is not satisfied with maybe"; "Nothing venture nothing have"; "It is working that makes a workman"; "Industry is Fortune's right hand";[209:A] "A willing helper does not wait till asked"; "We must not spend all the time whetting the scythe"; "Love labour, for if you want it not for food you may for physic"; "Bustle is not necessarily industry"; "The deeper the ploughing the heavier the reaping"; "He that begins many things finishes but few"; "Good beginning makes good ending." To these one could readily add one hundred more.
It is a true saying that "Every man is the son of his own works," and another good old saw is that "The burden which one likes is not felt." The labour is then wonderfully lightened, and those who are fond of their calling think little of the attendant toil, but perform as a pleasure what others consider a weariness.
A proverb still in common use is that "Many hands make light work"; while sometimes one can do better work by not working at all, for "The master's eye will do more than his two hands," the supervision being of more value than the sharing in the toil.
An interesting old relic and reminder of old times, when the spinning-wheel was in daily use, is seen in the saying, "I have tow on my distaff"—in other words, I have work all ready to engage my attention. Chaucer and other old writers introduce this proverb, but now the lapse of time, or, rather, the change of customs, has made it obsolete, a distaff being as utterly out of date as a battle-axe or a pair of snuffers.
The entirely accepted, and very justifiable, belief that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," is seen in such proverbs as, "If the devil catch a man idle he will set him to work," and its parallel, "Our idle days are Satan's busy days." It has been said, again, that "An idle brain is the Devil's workshop," and that "It is an ill army where the Devil carries the colours." Chaucer is in full agreement, and says that "Idlenesse is the gate of all harmes. An idel is like to a place that hath no walles; theras deviles may enter on every side," while Bishop Hall declares that "The idle man is the Devil's cushion, upon which he taketh his free ease."
Amongst the many proverbs that have the dispraise of idleness as their theme we may quote the following:—"Easy it is to bowl down hill"; "He is but idle who might be better employed"; "They must starve in frost who will not toil in heat"; "Idleness is the greatest prodigality"; "Idleness always envies industry"; "Business neglected is business lost"; "He that maketh his bed ill must be content to lie ill"; "Better to do a thing than wish it done"; "More die of idleness than of hard work"; "There is more fatigue in laziness than in labour"; "Shameful craving must have shameless refusing"; "Fish are not caught in one's sleep"; "Like a pig's tail, going all day, and nothing done at night"; "Lie not in the mud and cry for Heaven's aid"; "Were wishes horses beggars would ride"; "One of these days is none of these days"; "Wishing is of all employments the poorest paid"; "Accusing the times is excusing ourselves"; "There belongs more than whistling in going to plough." Life, however brief, is made yet shorter by waste of its opportunities, and it has been very truly said that "He who will not work until he feels himself in the proper mood will soon find himself in the proper mood never to work at all." For years we have had illuminated round our study walls the stirring words: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave," and they have lightened for us many a burden, and given an impulse to many an undertaking.
A Spanish proverb says that "She that gazes much spins little"—the distraction caused by externals being fatal to concentration of thought on the work. "No mill, no meal," is an old English proverb, signifying that if the necessary rattle of the machinery and the supervision of it is an offence one must be content to forego the benefits. "Black will take no other colour," is to be read as a hint that vicious people are seldom or never satisfactorily reclaimed. Camden, writing in 1614, tells a story of "A lusty gallant that had wasted much of his patrimony, seeing a gentleman in a gowne, not of the newest cut, tolde him that he had thought it had beene his great-grandfather's gowne. 'It is so,' saith he, 'and I have also my great-grandfather's lands, and so have not you.'" We see that Fuller declares "Oil of whip to be the proper plaister for the cramp of lazinesse"; while Cowper compares the idler to "A watch that wants both hands, As useless if it goes as if it stands"—a very happy idea.
One Smart, whom we may without offence class amongst the lesser poets, wrote an ode on "Idleness," in which he declares that that is the goal, and work merely its means of attainment. He thus apostrophises his ideal:
"For thee, O Idleness, the woes
Of life we patiently endure;
Thou art the source whence labour flowes,
We shun thee but to make thee sure."
The aspirations, the temptations, the duties of youth, form the subject of divers proverbs. These we may illustrate sufficiently by a judicious selection from the great mass of material available. How excellent the advice: "Be true to the best of yourself"; or this, "Rather set than follow example"; or yet, again, this, "Take care to be what thou wouldst seem to be." How good the teaching: "Liberty is not the freedom to do as we like, but as we ought"; that "Golden age never was present age"; that "Trinkets are no true treasure"; and that "In seeking happiness we may overlook content"—the first may perhaps be ours, but the second should always be obtainable.
