Very soon the King will part with health, and wealth and piety."
"Merciless, or money-loving, deaf to counsel, false of faith,
Thoughtless, spiritless, or careless, changing course with every
breath,
Or the man who scorns his rival--if a prince should choose a foe,
Ripe for meeting and defeating, certes he would choose him so."
"By the valorous and unskilful great achievements are not wrought;
Courage, led by careful Prudence, unto highest ends is brought."
"Grief kills gladness, winter summer, midnight-gloom the light of day,
Kindnesses ingratitude, and pleasant friends drive pain away;
Each ends each, but none of other surer conquerors can be
Than Impolicy of Fortune--of Misfortune Policy."
"Wisdom answers all who ask her, but a fool she cannot aid;
Blind men in the faithful mirror see not their reflection made."
* * * * *
"Where the Gods are, or thy Gúrú--in the face of Pain and Age,
Cattle, Brahmans, Kings, and Children--reverently curb thy rage."
"Oh, my Prince! on eight occasions prodigality is none--
In the solemn sacrificing, at the wedding of a son,
When the glittering treasure given makes the proud invader bleed,
Or its lustre bringeth comfort to the people in their need,
Or when kinsmen are to succour, or a worthy work to end,
Or to do a loved one honour, or to welcome back a friend."
"Truth, munificence, and valour, are the virtues of a King;
Royalty, devoid of either, sinks to a rejected thing."
* * * * *
"Hold thy vantage!--alligators on the land make none afraid;
And the lion's but a jackal who hath left his forest-shade."
* * * * *
"The people are the lotus-leaves, their monarch is the sun--
When he doth sink beneath the waves they vanish every one.
When he doth rise they rise again with bud and blossom rife,
To bask awhile in his warm smile, who is their lord and life."
"All the cows bring forth are cattle--only now and then is born
An authentic lord of pastures, with his shoulder-scratching horn."
"When the soldier in the battle lays his life down for his king,
Unto Swarga's perfect glory such a deed his soul shall bring."
* * * * *
"'Tis the fool who, meeting trouble, straightway Destiny reviles,
Knowing not his own misdoing brought his own mischance the whiles."
"'Time-not-come' and 'Quick-at-Peril,' these two fishes 'scaped the
net;
'What-will-be-will-be,' he perished, by the fishermen beset."
* * * * *
"Sex, that tires of being true,
Base and new is brave to you!
Like the jungle-cows ye range,
Changing food for sake of change."
* * * * *
"That which will not be will not be, and what is to be will be:
Why not drink this easy physic, antidote of misery?"
"Whoso trusts, for service rendered, or fair words, an enemy,
Wakes from folly like one falling in his slumber from a tree."
* * * * *
"Fellow be with kindly foemen, rather than with friends unkind;
Friend and foeman are distinguished not by title but by mind."
* * * * *
"Whoso setting duty highest, speaks at need unwelcome things,
Disregarding fear and favour, such an one may succour kings."
* * * * *
"Brahmans for their lore have honour; Kshattriyas for their bravery;
Vaisyas for their hard-earned treasure; Sudras for humility."
"Seven foemen of all foemen, very hard to vanquish be:
The Truth-teller, the Just-dweller, and the man from passion free.
"Subtle, self-sustained, and counting frequent well-won victories,
And the man of many kinsmen--keep the peace with such as these."
"For the man with many kinsmen answers by them all attacks;
As the bambu, in the bambus safely sheltered, scorns the axe."
* * * * *
"Whoso hath the gift of giving wisely, equitably, well;
Whoso, learning all men's secrets, unto none his own will tell:
Whoso, ever cold and courtly, utters nothing that offends,
Such an one may rule his fellows unto Earth's extremest ends."
* * * * *
"Cheating them that truly trust you, 'tis a clumsy villany!
Any knave may slay the child who climbs and slumbers on his knee."
"Hunger hears not, cares not, spares not; no boon of the starving beg;
When the snake is pinched with craving, verily she eats her egg."
* * * * *
"Of the Tree of State the root
Kings are--feed what brings the fruit."
* * * * *
"Courtesy may cover malice; on their _heads_ the woodmen bring,
Meaning all the while to burn them, logs and faggots--oh, my King!
And the strong and subtle river, rippling at the cedar's foot,
While it seems to lave and kiss it, undermines the hanging root."
* * * * *
"Weep not! Life the hired nurse is, holding us a little space;
Death, the mother who doth take us back into our proper place."
"Gone, with all their gauds and glories: gone, like peasants, are the
Kings,
Whereunto this earth was witness, whereof all her record rings."
"For the body, daily wasting, is not seen to waste away,
Until wasted; as in water set a jar of unbaked clay."
"And day after day man goeth near and nearer to his fate,
As step after step the victim thither where its slayers wait."
"Like as a plank of drift-wood
Tossed on the watery main,
Another plank encountered,
Meets,--touches,--parts again;
So tossed, and drifting ever,
On life's unresting sea,
Men meet, and greet, and sever,
Parting eternally."
"Halt, traveller! rest i' the shade: then up and leave it!
Stay, Soul! take fill of love; nor losing, grieve it!"
"Each beloved object born
Sets within the heart a thorn,
Bleeding, when they be uptorn."
"If thine own house, this rotting frame, doth wither,
Thinking another's lasting--goest thou thither?"
"Meeting makes a parting sure,
Life is nothing but death's door."
"As the downward-running rivers never turn and never stay,
So the days and nights stream deathward, bearing human lives away."
"Bethinking him of darkness grim, and death's unshunnèd pain,
A man strong-souled relaxes hold, like leather soaked in rain."
"From the day, the hour, the minute.
Each life quickens in the womb;
Thence its march, no falter in it,
Goes straight forward to the tomb."
"An 'twere not so, would sorrow cease with years?
Wisdom sees right what want of knowledge fears."
"Seek not the wild, sad heart! thy passions haunt it;
Play hermit in thy house with heart undaunted;
A governed heart, thinking no thought but good,
Makes crowded houses holy solitude."
"Away with those that preach to us the washing off of sin--
Thine own self is the stream for thee to make ablutions in:
In self-restraint it rises pure--flows clear in tide of truth,
By widening banks of wisdom, in waves of peace and truth."
"Bathe there, thou son of Pandu! with reverence and rite,
For never yet was water wet could wash the spirit white."
* * * * *
"Thunder for nothing, like December's cloud,
Passes unmarked: strike hard, but speak not loud."
* * * * *
"Minds deceived by evil natures, from the good their faith withhold;
When hot conjee once has burned them, children blow upon the cold."
THE END.