This is literally true in the most exalted sense. The best of men are those
"Whose circling charities begin
With the few loved ones Heaven has placed them near,
Nor cease till all mankind are in their sphere."
It is only in irony, or by an odious abuse of its meaning, that the proverb is ever used as an apology for that sort of charity which not only begins at home, but ends there likewise. The egotist holds that "Self is the first object of charity" (Latin).[398] "Every one has his hands turned towards himself" (Polish).
The priest christens his own child first.
Every man draws the water to his own mill.
"Every cow licks her own calf." "Every old woman blows under her own kettle" (both Servian). "Every one rakes the embers to his own cake" (Arab).
Every one for himself, and God for us all.
Let every tub stand on its own bottom.
Let every sheep hang by its own shank.
Let every herring hang by its own gills.
Ilka man for his ain hand, as John Jelly fought.—Scotch.
James Kelly gives this explanation of the last proverb: "As two men were fighting, John Jelly, going by, made up fiercely to them. Each of them asked him which he was for: he answered for his own hand, and beat them both." Sir Walter Scott puts aside John Jelly's claims to the authorship of this saying, and assigns it to Harry Smith in the following passage of "The Fair Maid of Perth." After the fight between the clans at the North Inch, Black Douglas says to the smith,—
"'If thou wilt follow me, good fellow, I will change thy leathern apron for a knight's girdle, thy burgage tenement for an hundred-pound-land to maintain thy rank withal.'