[154] De minimis non curat prætor.
HOME.
Home is home, be it ever so homely.
Hame is a hamely word.—Scotch.
"Homely" and "hamely" are not synonymous, but imply different ideas associated with home. The one means plain, unadorned, fit for every-day use; the other means familiar, pleasant, dear to the affections. "To every bird its nest is fair" (French, Italian).[155] "East and west, at home the best" (German).[156] "The reek of my own house," says the Spaniard, "is better than the fire of another's."[157] The same feeling is expressed with less energy, but far more tenderly, in a beautiful Italian proverb, which loses greatly by translation: "Home, my own home, tiny though thou be, to me thou seemest an abbey."[158] Two others in the same language are exquisitely tender: "My home, my mother's breast."[159] How touching this simple juxtaposition of two loveliest things! Again, "Tie me hand and foot, and throw me among my own."[160]
Every cock is proud on his own dunghill.
A cock is crouse on his ain midden.—Scotch.
This proverb has descended to us from the Romans: it is quoted by Seneca.[161] Its medieval equivalent, Gallus cantat in suo sterquilinio, was probably present to the mind of the first Napoleon when, in reply to those who advised him to adopt the Gallic cock as the imperial cognizance, he said, "No, it is a bird that crows on a dunghill." The French have altered the old proverb without improving it, thus: "A dog is stout on his own dunghill."[162] The Italian is better: "Every dog is a lion at home."[163] The Portuguese give us the counterpart of this adage, saying, "The fierce ox grows tame on strange ground."[164]
An Englishman's house is his castle.