And other proverbs, too, which at first sight may seem over-familiar with the name of the great enemy of mankind, yet contain lessons which it would be an infinite pity to lose; as this German: _Where the devil cannot come, he will send_;[213] a proverb of very serious import, which excellently sets out to us the _penetrative_ character of temptations, and the certainty that they will follow and find men out in their secretest retreats. It rebukes the absurdity of supposing that by any outward arrangements, cloistral retirements, flights into the wilderness, sin can be kept at a distance. So far from this, temptations will inevitably overleap all these outward and merely artificial barriers which may be raised up against them; for our great enemy is as formidable from a seeming distance as in close combat; _where he cannot come, he will send_. There are others of the same family, as the following: _The devil’s meal is half bran_; or _all bran_, as the Italians still more boldly proclaim it;[214] unrighteous gains are sure to disappoint the getter; the pleasures of sin, even in this present time, are largely dashed with its pains. And this: _He had need of a long spoon that eats with the devil_;—men fancy they can cheat the arch-cheater, can advance in partnership with him up to a certain point, and then, whenever the connexion becomes too dangerous, break it off at their will; being sure in this to be miserably deceived; for, to quote another in the same tone: _He who has shipped the devil, must carry him over the water_. Granting these and the like to have been often carelessly uttered, yet they all rest upon a true moral basis in the main. This last series of proverbs I will close with an Arabic one, to which not even this appearance of levity can be ascribed; for it is as solemn and sublime in form as it is profoundly deep in substance: _The blessings of the evil Genii are curses_. How deep a meaning the story of Fortunatus acquires, when taken as a commentary on this.