Like will draw like

“Like will draw like” is the moral attached to a fable about a Charcoal-Burner and a Fuller whose trades make them unsuitable housemates. The Fuller’s refusal gives the expression its force: proximity may bring people together, but resemblance and compatibility determine whether they can remain together without undoing each other’s work.

The fable and its practical conflict

A Charcoal-Burner works in his own house. Meeting a Fuller, he invites him to come and live there, arguing that they would make better neighbors and reduce their household expenses. The proposal is presented as sensible cooperation: sharing a home promises both companionship and economy.

The Fuller rejects the arrangement because the two trades produce opposing results. Whatever he whitens, the Charcoal-Burner would immediately blacken with charcoal. The disagreement is not about goodwill or the proposed savings; it is built into the ordinary work each man does. Their shared household would repeatedly undo the Fuller’s labor.

Meaning and use

The concluding moral, “Like will draw like,” generalizes from this specific incompatibility. It suggests that people are naturally drawn to those like themselves, while the episode also shows the converse: substantial differences can make close association difficult. Here, the image is concrete rather than abstract—whitening and blackening make the mismatch visible as a repeated practical consequence.

The fable gives the saying a measured irony. The Charcoal-Burner imagines that living together will make the men better neighbors and lower their expenses; the Fuller sees that, under one roof, one man’s work would continually negate the other’s. The expression therefore links affinity to the conditions of everyday association: a proposed bond may sound mutually beneficial, yet fail when the parties’ activities are fundamentally at odds.