Emblem 65

Dutch: What is too heavy for you to lift, let it lie.

Woman, do not take up the sword. / Let the cobbler not go beyond the shoe.

See the Hebrew adage in Drusius, Decuria 1, proverb 5, citing Leo [Africanus] in his description of Africa, book 2. They generally observe, he says, that for a camel's load, that is, for 700 Italian pounds, they count out three gold pieces.

Horace: Long consider what your shoulders refuse to bear, and what they are able to bear.

Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind, chapter 4: Before all else it is necessary to appraise oneself, because we generally seem to ourselves able to do more than we can. One man is ruined by confidence in his eloquence; another has crushed his weak body with a laborious office; another has demanded of his estate more than it can bear, etc.

Do not jump further than your pole is long. Friend, you who stand here at this ditch, it seems to me it is somewhat too wide for you; so before you begin your leap, make sure you consider well, make sure you know the bottom, make sure you measure the water; but above all, good man, note how far your pole can reach; for attempting much without counsel, and jumping far without measure, and undertaking matters beyond one's power, that brings many a man into the canal.

Do not spread wings larger than your nest.

He who has no eggs, let him brood the nest.

A proud heart and a beggar's purse will not agree.

If you have no ox, drive an ass.

If your income is not equal to your expense, make your expense equal to your income. / Let each stretch his leg according to the blanket. / Brother, measure yourself against your companion.

He who has no lime must build with clay. / With half the cost one also keeps house. / One must stretch oneself according to the blanket. / Set your mouth according to your purse.

One must know one's own measure. / Measure yourself by your own foot. / When a poor man begins to imitate a rich one, he is ruined. / Let not the shoe be bigger than the foot. / Little birds build little nests. / Walls according to one's wealth. / Keep yourself within your own skin. / The tortoise, drawn up inside its shell, is safe. / Dwell with yourself, that you may know how scanty your furniture is.

Church according to work (i.e. suit your building to your means). / Spend according to what comes down (your income). / Measure maintains estate. / Let no one jump further than his pole allows. / Let each row with the oars he has. / Do not hoist your sail too high. / Know your station and keep measure. / Do not let the fool out too much. / Little birds, little nests. / Do not jump further than your pole is long.

Let each stretch his leg as far as his cover reaches. / Brother, measure with your own span.

A proud heart in a beggar is not unlike a great fire in a small cottage, which does not warm the house but burns it.

(Turkish) Let him stretch according to his own measure, i.e. [as the foregoing].

One must stretch oneself as far as the sheet is long. / One must spend according to one's income. / And one must make the mouthfuls to the measure of the mouth.

Not a shoe bigger than the foot.

Do not touch red-hot iron, or else spit on it. Lately, as I went along the street and paid close attention to everything, I saw a boy standing there who hastily seized an iron, an iron that he saw before him, as it lay by the smithy. The smith, his father, stood by, and pulled the boy aside, and said, with a sharp reproof: Well, you dull fellow that you are, are you a smith's son? Are you my child, and do you do this? Do you grab out of sheer ignorance, do you reach for the iron with your hand before you test it and are sure whether it is hot or cold or how it is? Truly this is proper blockhead's work; you, take better notice; for in a smith's shop everyone knows this: that an iron should never be touched unless first made wet, and if it then gives a hissing noise, keep your fingers at home above all. This was, to my mind, a thing that went further than the smithy; I have therefore set it down here; so, whoever likes it, let him carry it with him.

To touch something in a smithy, to taste something at the apothecary's, to read in a conjurer's book, can only be done with harm. / Do not stick yourself into any hole unless you see through it.

Let each practise the craft he knows. See Erasmus on this adage.

It is bad grinding without water. The Reader will please (in place of a plate, which has here been omitted) imagine to himself a grinder with a dry grindstone, complaining in the manner that follows. Hear, friends, you who see me today, hear the ground of my grief, hear, I pray, my complaint which I must bring to light: I am a young and able fellow, I know my trade wonderfully well, I have truly no poor understanding, I am also nimble of hand, I know how steel, however fine, must be ground according to the art; but see, O dear mates, see: alas, water I have not! Alas, water, that is powerful wetness; without it no grinding avails, no art avails, nor nimble foot, where lacking it causes hindrance. See how it stands with people and how it goes in the world! Though someone be able and wise, where does a poor cavalier win a prize? For if he has but a dry stone, alas, there he stands alone; he stands, alas, plain and looking on, for without water one does not grind. Although the bees are skilful, go and take away their rosemary, go and take away their flowers and herbs; see, all their arts are at an end: that useful, neat, pretty creature at once loses its clever spirit. With fish one lures fish, with finches one catches finches; a single penny in the purse is never heard to clink; a tree grows best where more trees stand; money is just so, it wants a companion.

It is bad combing where there is no hair. / With empty hands it is bad luring hawks. / He who wants to win must stake something. / It is bad making porridge of water alone. / It is bad baking cakes without beer or fat. / A good fire makes a quick cook.

One never made good soup with water alone. / One needs money to begin the game. / He fishes in vain who does not bait his hook. / Every quality loses its lustre where there are no means. / There is no more painful care than to be in honour with poverty. / The industrious bees cannot bear fruit without flowers. / He who has an owl catches other birds. / He who has money can do things well.

Nor is there more grievous care than to have honour and poverty. / Nor can the skilful swarm bring forth fruit without flowers. / Never a good stew with water alone.

The fire helps the cook. / The golden key opens every door. / Money makes the horses run. / Those who have ducats are called lords.

You will always be poor, Aemilianus, if you are poor.

Not too many eggs under one hen. (A farmer speaks.) I have almost a constant quarrel with our Trijn, that whimsical woman, who tells me that she has a hen as good as any I know in the world; a hen that broods firmly and surely, and feeds her chicks wonderfully well; and therefore our sour Trijn insists (and it can and may not be otherwise) that I shall lay all my eggs under her to be hatched. But I cannot understand it, and therefore oppose it; I say (and that on good grounds) too much is always unhealthy. Shall I entrust all our eggs, the hope of the long year, shall I entrust our treasure, our whole stock, in one lump and all together, to a single fowl? No, that I do not mean to do. Can not a weasel or a cat, a polecat or a vile rat, bring the brooding hen into danger, bring the brooding hen to death? Can not a dog or a mangy pig be the death of all our profit? Can not some other mishap bring us into the deepest distress? Calm yourself then, my dear Trijn, for this truly may not be; a single nest is soon disturbed, a single beast is soon killed, and therefore our goods must be spread, and laid partly here and partly elsewhere. A mouse that has only one hole, it is a wonder it lives long. But while the countryman and his wife fall into quarrelling about this, does anyone ask what this means? See, thus it is expounded. You, merchant, do not risk all your wares in one bottom; and you, rentier, see that your money is not all counted out on one side; and you who are rich in lands, do not trust them to one dyke; but above all, you mighty Prince, however much you thirst to rule, do not lightly hang your estate, however it goes, on a single battle; the world's affairs altogether hover in a loose scale, so as to risk at one time all you have and all you are. I say therefore in conclusion, I cry it out with the countryman: many cables are best for the skipper, so not too much in one nest.

The cow does not know what her tail is worth to her until she has lost it.

What does the cow do with her tail? It is not worth a bean to her; it seems to me it does not suit her, it serves the beast only as a burden. It is indeed so, that every limb has its use and its own purpose: the ear hears, the tooth gnaws, the eye sees, the leg carries, the foot is needed for stepping; but what is this swish-swash for? This I have often pondered and often said aloud. But lately I came into the country, where I found many fine cows; but one of them had her tail docked, and she stood covered over with flies, and though she threatened with her head, her threatening was not believed at all; the wicked vermin sat just as fast and bit her fiercely in the body. I saw another standing nearby, who was considerably better off, since she had a brisk thing hanging down behind her, with which she struck here and there wherever she became aware of flies, so that not even a little gnat could last on her back. Seeing this, I spoke in spirit, as in the place of the beast: See! no one knows his own good until he must once do without it.

The cow does not know what her tail serves her for until she has lost it.

The cow does not know what her tail is worth to her until she has lost it. / When something is lacking to us, then we know what it is worth. / A thing lost is a thing known; after the damage everyone is wise. / If you want to know what a ducat is worth, try to borrow one. / Health is not valued until the time one loses it. / No one feels poverty like him who has seen himself rich.

If you want to know what a ducat is worth, seek to borrow one. / Nor is health valued until the time it is lost. / Nor does anyone feel poverty like him who has seen himself rich.

Once harm has been suffered, the fool becomes wise.

If one had to do things twice, everyone would be wise.

Horace: We hate virtue while it is safe among us; envious, we seek it when it is taken from our eyes.

Seneca: By lacking things we learn how dear were the things we have lost.

Plautus: Only then do we men understand our blessings, when we have lost the things we had in our power.

(French motto) A good carter turns in a small space.

Let the Reader imagine here a carter on a narrow road, turning his coach around short and skilfully. Though the track is narrow, though the scanty ways are crowded together and very inconvenient, yet in this case a handy carter knows a remedy, and manages that his wagon turns about right there; another, not knowing how to drive according to the art, would certainly have to suffer damage here, or in this case would be overcome by necessity, or would tumble with the coach into the middle of the ditch. One who with a quiet mind exercises himself in morals, and has accustomed his heart to bend to reason, finds in his occupation that which may content him, even though he is small-housed and without great display; he nevertheless knows how to carry out his affairs, and can still move all his limbs; to my mind he is a capable man who can turn his wagon in a narrow corner.

Provision made in season does good to the house. / A small kitchen makes great houses.

Frugality is voluntary poverty. / Great riches for a man are to live sparingly with an even mind. / Thrift is a great revenue. / Even in slender circumstances a great spirit has room to display itself.

Claudian: Nature has granted all men to be happy, if only one knows how to use it.

Lucan: Learn with how little life may be sustained, and how much nature demands.

When the bird has flown, it matters little to shut the cage.

The illustration of this might be a father who addresses his child, while the child tries to shut a birdcage out of which the bird has flown, weeping bitterly on account of that very loss. (The father speaks.) Well now, my worthy son, why this crying? Or is the bird gone that sat here within? Yes, that it is, as I perceive; that is what ails you, and that is why you complain and shed sad tears. But, child, that is done; the finch has flown away, the finch has gone into the wood or into the air. What profit can it be that you shut the cage? The bird, dear fellow, the bird is out of it. What use is it to guard the stable, or to charge the servant with it, when the best horse has already been stolen? What use is it to cover the well with earth when the fattest calf lies drowned in it? It is an old-time custom of fools to want to cover the head only after a hard blow; wisdom must see in time and beforehand how all matters stand, and what may happen. You then, be comforted, and still your bitter complaining; what cannot be set right must be willingly borne; take better heed afterwards, pay better attention to your task; one is sometimes made clever only by misfortune.

To shut the stable when the oxen have been taken. / A word spoken is a stone thrown: it can no longer come back. / The arrow shot does not return. / After the horse has been stolen you shut the stable. / After the deed, repentance is worth nothing.

Too late one shuts the stable when the horse is lost. / Too late cries the bird when it is caught. / The rabbit escaped, the counsel come. / After the deed, the Breton is wise. / After the head is broken, to anoint the helmet.

To bring up siege engines after the war. / Thrift at the bottom of the purse comes too late. / Too late do you put a lock on the stable after the thief's thefts. / The outcome is the teacher of fools. / It is of no use to close the enclosure when the ox is lost. / The Phrygians grow wise too late. See Erasmus on this adage.

(Turkish) The arrow once shot does not return, i.e. [as the foregoing].

Scraping is of no use when the pot is empty. / 'It is too late,' said the magpie, and already had the bolt in her body. / A thrown stone, a shot arrow, and a spoken word are not to be recalled. / It is too late to fill the well when the calf is drowned.

One chases the cat from the bacon too late, when it has been eaten. / Later repentance is women's repentance. / After the deed even the fool understands the advice. / When the rain is over, you put on your raincoat. / It does not help to shut the stable when the cattle are out.

The occasion gone, the counsel come. / After the head is broken, to anoint the skull.

When the arrow is in the air, the swift bird on the wing, the stone slung from the hand, the voice outside your teeth, then the blow has already gone, and there is no holding it. So before the arrow is in the air, the swift bird on the wing, the stone slung from the hand, the words outside your teeth, then weigh most carefully, worthy man, what may come of it; for when the mischief has happened, untimely complaining avails nothing.

When the word is out, it belongs to another. / Spoken is spoken; one can no longer wipe it off with any sponge.

A word once sent forth does not know how to return. / And the word once let go flies away irrevocable. / This is still more true of what is written. / The written letter remains.

A word spoken is a stone thrown: it cannot come back. / Speak little, but write less.

If anyone has erred in speaking, it is not wiped out with any sponge. / Sirach 21:27: The wise weigh their words with a gold-weight.