A travelled man has leave to lee: Folks will not go to far countries to prove his words. O Tartarin de Tarascon!
Better learn by your neighbour's skaith than your ain skin. So might Cleopatra have said when she tried the effect of poisons on her slaves before making her own choice.
Drink little that ye may drink lang, is a piece of advice Donald has well laid to heart, only he has modified the first part considerably.
I think I have quoted enough proverbs to prove that the Scot has the measure of his neighbour, and knows how to make use of him.
Most of them have a smack of realism which shows that Donald has a serious aim in life, that of being a successful man.
Even the use he makes of the precepts of the Bible proves it. He uses his Bible, but adapts to his purpose the lessons he finds therein.
The Bible is his servant rather than his master, and has this good about it, that with a little cleverness it can be made to prove anything.
If he sometimes come across a precept which is perfectly clear and irrefutable, Donald does not scruple to ignore it.
I was talking with a Scotchman one evening about the different religions of the world, and I remarked to him that when the Mussulmans call us "dogs of Christians," it is not because we are Christians, for they are admirers of the Christian religion, but simply because we do not follow the precepts of Christianity.