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SEPTEMBER, 1874.]
MAXIMS RENDERED FREELY FROM INDIAN WRITERS.
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this way, however, he is in secret to honour the slayers." It cannot be denied that most of these maxims are remarkable for the spirit of humanity which they inculcate. Whether the practice of the ancient Indians corresponded to the precepts of their teachers is a question which I am unable to answer; but it is of no little importance that a high ideal should be held up before a people, even although it should
often be disregarded. That it was the barbarous practice of the ancient Greeks, civilized in other respects as they were, to sell as slaves those citizens of other free Hellenic states who fell into their hands in battle, is well known. See Grote's History of Greece, vol. ix. p. 480, and vol. viü. p. 224. I am unable at present to pursue this latter subject further.
Edinburgh, July 15th, 1874.
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS MAXIMS FREELY TRANSLATED FROM
DIFFERENT INDIAN WRITERS. BY J. MUIR, D.C.L., LL.D., PA.D., EDINBURGH.
(Continued from page 183.) Praise of Women. (Mahabh., I. 3028 ff.) | Does He for babes their mothers' milk prepare, Our love these sweetly-speaking women gain;
And will He not His ever-watchful care When men are all alone, companions bright,
Extend o'er all their future life's career ? In duty, wise to judge and guide aright.
No Second Youth for Man. (Compare Job xiv. 7.) Kind tender mothers in distress and pain.
(Kathásarit-ságara, LV. 110.) The wife is half the man, his priceless friend; The empty beds of rivers fill again;
Of pleasure, virtue, wealth, his constant source; Trees, leafless now, renew their vernal bloom; A help and stay along his earthly course,
Returning moons their lustrous phase resume; Through life unchanging, yea, beyond its end. But man a second youth expects in vain.
Women naturally Pandits. (Msichchhakati.) The lapse of time not practically noticed. Men, seeking knowledge, long must strive,
(Subhashitárnava.) And over many volumes pore;.
Again the morn returns, again the night; But favoured women all their lore,
Again the sun, the moon, ascends the sky; Unsought, from nature's grace derive.
Our lives still waste away as seasons fly, The Bachelor only half a man. (Brahma
But who his final welfare keeps in sight? dharma, II. 2.1.)
The same. (Rámáyana, II. 105, 21.) A man is only half a man, his life
Men hail the rising sun with glee, Is not a whole, until he finds a wife.
They love his setting glow to see, His house is like a graveyard, sad and still,
Bat fail to mark that every day Till gleeful children all its chambers fill.
In fragments bears their life away. * Take no thought for your life, what ye shall cat,' All Nature's face delight to view fc. (Hitopadeśa.)
As changing seasons come anew; Shall He to thee His aid refase
None sees how each revolving year Who clothes the swan in dazzling white,
Abridges swiftly man's career. Who robes in green the parrot bright, The peacock decks in rainbow hues ?
Men should not delay to be good; Life uncertain.
(Mahabh., XII. 6534 ff.) The same. (Vriddha Chanakya, X. 17.) Death comes, and makes a man his prey, With fervent hymns while I great Vishņu laud, A man whose powers are yet anspent, The gracious, mighty, all-sustaining God,
Like one on gathering flowers intent, How can I, faithless, for subsistence fear? Whose thoughts are turned another way.
• When Yudhishthira resolves to offer the horse scribre, and the horse, according to custom, is let loose and wauders over the earth, attended by Arjunn, the latter, in accordance with the injunctions of his brother, abstains from slaying any of the kings who oppose him, and whom he overcomes in battle: Asvamedhikaparvan, vv. 2216 ff., 2459 ff.
