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MAXIMS, &c. FROM THE MAHABHARATA.
DECEMBER, 1876.]
Ev'n wealth itself to some men proves a bane; Who dotes on it, no lasting bliss can gain. As flesh by denizens of earth, sea, air,Beasts, fishes, birds,-is seized as dainty fare, So, too, the rich are preyed on everywhere. Increasing wealth to greed and folly leads, And meanness, pride, and fear and sorrow breeds.
In getting, keeping, losing wealth, what pain Do men endure! They others kill for gain. The vain desires of mortals never rest; Contentment only makes them truly blest. Life, beauty, youth, gold, power, we cannot keep; The loss of those we love we soon must weep; On such-like things, from which he soon must part,
The thoughtful man will never set his heart. In hoarding gold no more thy days expend; Or else endure the ills that wealth attend. Ev'n men who wealth for pious uses win Would better act if none they sought to gain : 'Tis wiser not with mud to soil the skin Than first to soil, and then wash off the stain.
47. Fools mistake evil for good. v. 1155.
Esteeming real loss as gain,
And real gain as evil, fools,
Whom lawless passion ever rules,
For bliss mistake their greatest bane.
48. Men risk their lives for money. iii. 15398.
On seas, in forests wild, the bold
Will risk their precious lives for gold. 49. Consequences of rejecting honest advice. x.234. Whene'er a man wise counsel scorns
Which friends impress, but he dislikes, And such a man misfortune strikes, He then, too late, his folly mourns. 50. Boldness necessary for success. i. 5613. No man gains good who is not bold, And ready danger to confront:
But if he dares, and bears its brunt, And lives, he then shall good behold. 51. Action at the right time. xi. 36. While yet the hours for action last,
A man should strive his ends to gain; That so he may not mourn in vain, The chance away for ever past.
52. No perfect happiness in the world. xii. 6712.* Some men by circumstance of birth Are happier, others more distrest; But any man completely blest
I nowhere yet have seen on earth.
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58. Good advice not to be wasted on fools. v. 3290. When good advice is not more prized than ill, What man of sense has any words to spare For thoughtless fools? Does any minstrel care On deaf men's ears to waste his tuneful skill? 54. The wise corrected by advice; the bad only
checked by punishment. v. 1252. Their teachers' words correct the wise, And rulers stern the bad chastise: The Judge who dwells 'mid Hades' gloom Awards the secret sinner's doom.
55. Bad men pleased to hear ill, not good, of others. v. 1382.
Of others' ill to hear makes bad men glad ; To hear of others' virtues makes them sad.. 56. The bad like, the good dislike, to censure others. i. 3079.
In censuring others wicked men delight: With all good men 'tis just the opposite. 57. Censoriousness and self-deception. viii. 2116.
All men are very quick to spy
Their neighbours' faults, but very slow
To note their own: when these they know, With self-deluding art they eye.
58. Men of merit only can appreciate merit. viii. 1817.
No man can others' merits know If he himself has none to show.
59. A man's aims vary with his time of life. x. 115.
In youth a man is led away
By other thoughts, ideas, aims, Than those his middle life which sway: In age yet other schemes he frames.
60. Virtue lies in the thought, not in the act. xii. 7063. The real seat of virtue's in the mind,
And not in outward act; so say the wise : Let therefore every man in thought devise,. In act promote, the weal of all mankind.
This verse in the original immediately precedes No. 21, p. 154.
