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"Him that has a good wife no evil in life that may not be borne, can befall.

Him that has a bad wife no good thing in life can chance to, that good you may call."ssss1

Put your hand in the creel, and take out either an adder or an eel.

That's matrimony. "In buying horses and taking a wife, shut your eyes and commend yourself to God" (Italian).ssss1 "Marriages are not as they are made, but as they turn out" (Italian).ssss1

There's but ae gude wife in the country, and ilka man thinks he's got her.

It is a pleasant delusion while it lasts, and it is not incurable. Instances of complete recovery from it are not rare.

A man may woo where he will, but must wed where he's weird.

That is, where he is fated to wed. This is exactly equivalent to the English saying,—

Marriages are made in heaven

the meaning of which Dean Trench appears to me to mistake, when he speaks with admiration of its "religious depth and beauty." I cannot find in it a shadow of religious sentiment. It simply implies that it is not forethought, inclination, or mutual fitness that has the largest share in bringing man and wife together. More efficient than all these is the force of circumstances, or what people vaguely call chance, fate, fortune, and so forth. In the French version of the adage, "Marriages are written in heaven,"ssss1 we find the special formula of Oriental fatalism; and fatalism is everywhere the popular creed respecting marriage. Hence, as Shakspeare says,—