evidence: Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. [...] What’s more, there was indeed a fire/servant/master phrase in common use in the 1700s, but it was "fire is a good servant but a bad master." Our lawyer readers might be amused to know that Sir William Blackstone used that phrase in some commentaries on Shakespeare (who knew?), describing it as a proverb. (The same construction was also used about love, money, wine, imagination, and other things.) Given this, it would have been odd for someone to say "Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master," with negative qualifiers both for servant and master, when the proverb had a positive for the servant but a negative for the master. Of course, the point of the proverb was that fire is indeed dangerous — but the dangerousness was conveyed by implication from "bad master," and was counterposed to the value stressed by "good servant."