"All but saves many a man" (Danish).[345] "Almost kills no man" (Danish).[346] "Almost never killed a fly" (German);[347] for
An inch of a miss is as good as a mile.
This is the original reading of the proverb, and better than that which is now more current: "A miss is as good as a mile." The French say, "For a point Martin lost his ass,"[348] and thereby hangs a tale. An ecclesiastic named Martin, Abbot of Asello, in Italy, wished to have this Latin line inscribed over the gate of the abbey:—
PORTA PATENS ESTO. NULLI CLAUDARIS HONESTO.
"Gate be open. Never be closed against an honest man."
It was just the time when the long-forgotten art of punctuation was beginning to be brought into use again. Abbot Martin was not skilled in this art, and unfortunately he employed a copyist to whom it was equally unknown. The consequence was, that the point which ought to have followed the word esto was placed after nulli, completely changing the meaning of the line, thus:—
PORTA PATENS ESTO NULLI. CLAUDARIS HONESTO.
"Gate be open never. Be closed against an honest man."
The pope, being informed of this unseemly inscription, deposed Abbot Martin, and gave the abbey to another. The new dignitary corrected the punctuation of the unlucky line, and added the following one:—
UNO PRO PUNCTO CARUIT MARTINUS ASELLO.
That is to say, "For a single point Martin lost his Asello." But Asello, the name of the abbey, being Latin for ass, it happened, in the most natural way in the world, that the line was translated thus: "For a point Martin lost his ass," and this erroneous version passed into a proverb. Other accounts of its origin have been given; but that which we have here set down is confirmed by the fact that in Italy they have also another reading of the proverb, namely, Per un punto Martino perse la cappa ("For a point Martin lost the cope"); that is, the dignity of abbot typified in that vestment.