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]