Men are in general abundantly attentive to their own interest; if, therefore, you wish them to serve you with diligence, you must make it their interest to do so:

Hoc tibi sit argumentum, semper in promptu situm,
Ne quid expectes arnicos facere, quod per te queas. Be this your rule through life, never leave to others to perform any business for you, which you can do yourself: consonant to this we say, help yourself and your friends will love you.The lark, that had made her nest in a cornfield, was in no haste to quit her habitation so long as she heard that the farmer depended upon the assistance of his neighbours and friends to get in his harvest, but when her young ones told her that the master was coming himself with his sons the next day; now it is time, she said, to be gone, for the business will certainly be done. A Venetian nobleman, we are told, called upon Cosmo de Medicis, to inquire of him by what means he might improve his fortune, and received from him the following rules; «Never to do that by another which he could do himself; not to defer until to-morrow what might be done to-day; and not to neglect small concerns».

He is under the knife, in great danger or extremity. Our phrase, he is under the hatchet, is of similar import. The adage was applied when any one who had fallen into an ambush, into the sea, or into any other peril, was left to wade through, or extricate himself by his own strength or ingenuity. The metaphor is taken from a victim standing at the altar, ready to be sacrificed.

––«fugit improbus et me sub cultro liquit».

Instead of assisting, he fled, and left me to struggle through my difficulties unaided. Occasions offer too frequently of applying this apothegm.

Joan is as good as my lady in the dark, and De noche todos los gatos son pardos, in the dark all cats are grey. The following, which is familiar to all my readers, says all that is necessary on this subject:

«Whilst in the dark on thy soft hand I hung,
And heard the tempting syren in thy tongue;
What flames, what darts, what anguish I endured:
But when the candle entered. I was cured».

Persons pretending to instruct those who are qualified to be their masters, or to inform others in matters of which they are themselves ignorant, fall under the censure of this adage; their conduct being as ridiculous as would be that of a sow who should presume to attempt to teach wisdom. Our clowns, not very delicately, tell you, not to teach your grandames to suck eggs, for, «a bove majori discit arare minor», the young ox learns to plow from the elder, not the elder from the young, and El Diablo saba mucho, the Spaniards say, porque es viejo, the devil knows a great deal, for he is old.

Bear and forbear, a phrase frequently used by Epictetus, as embracing almost the whole that philosophy or human reason can teach us. Of this Epictetus was a memorable example, no man bearing the evils of life with more constancy or less coveting its enjoyments. His master Epaphroditus, for he was a slave in the early part of his life, diverting himself with striking his leg with a large stick, he told him, that if he continued to give such heavy strokes he would break the bone; which happening as he had foretold, all that he said on the occasion was, «did not I tell you, you would break my leg». When afterwards he had obtained his liberty and was much followed as a teacher of philosophy, he still lived in the plainest and simplest manner; his house or cottage had no door, and the little furniture it contained was of the meanest kind. When an iron lamp by which he used to study, was stolen, he said, « I shall deceive the thief if he should come again, as he will only find an earthen one».This earthen lamp, Lucian tells us, was sold for three thousand drachmas or groats, £75 of our money. He is said to have lived to his ninety-sixth year. The Mexicans, without being beholden to the tenets of philosophy, have learnt from experience the necessity of undergoing trouble; they say to their children on being born, «thou art come into the world, child, to endure; suffer, therefore, and be silent».