Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 129

APRIL, 1875.)
BOOK NOTICES.
119
But virtue ever practised lends
Without a bard his deeds to sing The understanding firmer sway;
Can any prince be known to fame ? And understanding day by day
Of old lived many à valiant king More widely virtue's rule extends.
Of whom we know not even the name ! 63. Secret sin not unobserved. Manu, VIII. 84 Comment is needless : the sentiments are ren(conf. MahAbh. I. 3015; Manu VIII. 91) :
dered with great fidelity into easy verses, that will "None sees me," so, when bent on sin,
be read with much more interest than any mere The fool imagines, vainly bold :
prose version, however terse and pithy. For gods his evil deeds behold
A portion of the preface has already been given The soul, too, sees,-the man within.
(pp. 79-81). In it Dr. Muir observes that "it is The following maxim will be recognized as very worthy of remark how many more parallels to different in its teaching from anything Biblical, what have been commonly, regarded as exclusively and it is on one of the points that differentiate and peculiarly Christian maxims and precepts are Christianity from other systems.
presented by Indian than by Greek and Roman 64. Hopelessness of reclaiming the bad. Bha- literature." Greek and Roman literature, however, minivilisa, I. 93:-.
is largely historical, and it is principally to phiWhoe'er the bad by kindness tries
losophical writers and poets we must look for To gain,--but vainly ploughs the skies,
moral maxims. And the whole body of such The viewless wind with water laves,
classical authors who lived before the influence And paints a picture on the waves.
of Christianity began to tell on Roman thought, The criminal law does not quite recognize the
and whose works have come down to us, ought
first to be compared in extent with the huge next as teaching the whole truth. 68. Sin removed by repentance. Manu, XI.
tomes of Sanskrit philosophy and mythology; 229-231 :
for, the larger the field over which the human Whenever men with inward pain
mind has exercised its energies, the more traces And self-reproach their sins confess,
may naturally be expected of its ethical beliefs. And stedfast, never more transgress,
And secondly, is it not a mistake to suppose that Their souls are cleansed from every stain ;
sentiments such as those versified by Dr. Muir are As serpents shed their worn-out skins,
to be regarded as exclusively and peculiarly ChrisThese men are freed from cast-off sins.
tian? If the Bible were to be looked on merely 69. Noble Characters. Såhityadarpana, 322 :
as a revelation of certain moral truths, it might A man whom wealth has never spoiled,
- be startling to find many of them anticipated in A youth by reckless vice unsoiled,
other quarters. But the case is very different : A ruler wakeful, -self-controlled,
there were ethics before there were Christian Be these among the great enrolled.
ethics, and, as has been well remarked, "it would 70. The prosperity of others not to be envied.
be a grievous deficiency" if Christianity, "as
regards the whole anterior world except the Mahâbhârata, XII. 3880-1:
Jewish, stood in relation to nothing which men On thee to smile though fortune never deign,
had thought, or felt, or hoped, or believed ; with Her favourites' happier lot with calmness
no other co-efficient but the Jewish, and resting lear ;
on no broader historic basis than that would For prudent men from wealth they do not
supply." Christianity accepts these moral maxime, share, But others' own, enjoyment ever gain.
these presentiments of the truth, as being, so far
as they are entitled to have weight, confirmations 71. The saint should patiently await the time
of it, witnessing to its suitableness to the moral of his departure. Manu, VI. 45, and Mahâbh.
wants and aspirations of humanity. But the good XII. 8929 (conf. Job, xiv. 14) :
liest maxim possesses no vital power save in its Let not the hermit long for death,
coherence to a body of truth. Such sayings as Nor cling to this terrestrial state:
these collected by Dr. Muir, or by Von Bohlen As slaves their master's summons wait,
(Das Alte Indien, vol. I. p. 364), abound in every So let him, called, resign his breath.
code of morals, but they want the coherence The next and last was well worth quoting on which peculiarly distinguishes the ethical system account of the parallel the lines offer to Horace's of the Bible. As Lactantius remarks (Inst. Div. well-known verse-Odes, IV. ix. 25 ff.
vii. 7): "Nullam sectam fuisse taun deviam, nec 72. "Vivere fortes ante Agamemnona," &c. Bil- philosophorum quendam tam inanem, qui non hana in Sarñgadhara Paddhati, Sámányakavi. viderit aliquid o vero. Quodsi extitisset aliquis, pramsa, 13 (12):
qui veritatem, sparsam per singulos, per sectas