"'I thank you humbly, my lord,' said the smith dejectedly, 'but I have shed blood enough already; and Heaven has punished me by foiling the only purpose for which I entered the contest.'
"'How, friend?' said Douglas. 'Didst thou not fight for the Clan Chattan, and have they not gained a glorious conquest?'
"'I fought for my own hand,' said the smith indifferently; and the expression is still proverbial in Scotland—meaning, 'I did such a thing for my own pleasure, not for your profit.'"
The skunk stinks ten thousand times worse than a polecat. "Let every one carry his own sack to the mill" (German).[399] "Let every fox take care of his own tail" (Italian).[400]
Self do, self have.
Analogous to this manly proverb, as it seems to me, is that Dutch one, "Self's the man."[401] which Dean Trench has stigmatised as merely selfish.
The tod [fox] ne'er sped better than when he went his ain errand.—Scotch.
The miller ne'er got better moulter [toll] than he took wi' his ain hands.—Scotch.
If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.
If you would have a thing well done, do it yourself.
Ilka man's man had a man, and that made the Treve fa'.—Scotch.
The Treve was a strong castle built by Black Douglas. The governor left the care of it to a deputy, and he to an under-deputy, through whose negligence the castle was taken and burned. "The master bids the man, and the man bids the cat, and the cat bids its tail" (Portuguese).[402] General Sir Charles Napier, speaking of what happened during his temporary absence from the government of Corfu, says, "How entirely all things depend on the mode of executing them, and how ridiculous mere theories are! My successor thought, as half the world always thinks, that a man in command has only to order, and obedience will follow. Hence they are baffled, not from want of talent, but from inactivity, vainly thinking that while they spare themselves every one under them will work like horses."
Trust not to another for what you can do yourself.