And then, how exquisitely witty many proverbs are. Thus, not to speak of one familiar to us all, which is perhaps the queen of all proverbs: _The road to hell is paved with good intentions_;[94] take this Scotch one: _A man may love his house well, without riding on the ridge_; it is enough for a wise man to know what is precious to himself, without making himself ridiculous by evermore proclaiming it to the world; or this of our own: _When the devil is dead, he never wants a chief mourner_; in other words, there is no abuse so enormous, no evil so flagrant, but that the interests or passions of some will be so bound up in its continuance that they will lament its extinction; or this Italian: _When rogues go in procession, the devil holds the cross_;[95] when evil men have it thus far their own way, then worst is best, and in the inverted hierarchy which is then set up, the foremost in badness is foremost also in such honour as is going. Or consider how happily the selfishness and bye-ends which too often preside at men’s very prayers are noted in this Portuguese: _Cobblers go to mass, and pray that cows may die_;[96] that is, that so leather may be cheap. Or, take another, a German one, noting with slightest exaggeration a measure of charity which is only too common: _He will swallow an egg, and give away the shells in alms_; or this from the Talmud, of which I will leave the interpretation to yourselves: _All kinds of wood burn silently, except thorns, which crackle and call out, We too are wood_. The wit of proverbs spares few or none. They are, as may be supposed, especially intolerant of fools. _We_ say: _Fools grow without watering_; no need therefore of adulation or flattery, to quicken them to a ranker growth; for indeed _The more you stroke the cat’s tail, the more he raises his back_;[97] and the Russians: _Fools are not planted or sowed; they grow of themselves_; while the Spaniards: _If folly were a pain, there would be crying in every house_;[98] having further an exquisitely witty one on learned folly as the most intolerable of all follies: _A fool, unless he know Latin, is never a great fool_.[99] And here is excellently unfolded to us the secret of the fool’s confidence: _Who knows nothing, doubts nothing_.[100] [Sidenote: Bohemian proverb.]