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DECEMBER, 1879.)
MISCELLANEA.
389
Men find their spouses' love and skill . The surest cure for every ill. The luckless wight who lacks a wife, And leads a doleful single life, Should leave his home, and lonely dwell In some secluded forest dell, And there should spend his days and nights In fasting, penance, painful rites, For now, without a helpmate dear, His house is but a desert drear. Who then would live without a wife His house's joy and light and life P With her the poorest hut will please, And want and toil be borne with ease. Without her, spacious gilded halls Possess no charm, -all splendour palls.
SACRIFICE. IS EVERYTHING.
Mahdbharata, xii. 2320. A man of wicked life, a thief, Of sinners, yea, the very chief, - Is reckoned good, if so he bring The gods a fitting offering.
A wife is half the man,--transcends In value far all other friends. She overy earthly blessing bringe, And even redemption from her springs. The men possessed of virtuous wives Can lead at home religious lives. They need not to the woods repair, And merit seek through hardships there." A happy, joyful life they lead ; Their undertakings all succeed.
In lonely hours, companions bright,These charming women give delight; Like fathers wise, in duty tried, To virtuous acts they prompt and guide. Whene'er we suffer pain and grief, Like mothers kind, they bring relief." The weary man whom toils oppress, When travelling through life's wilderness, Finds in his spouse a place of rest, And there abides, refreshed and blest. When men at length this life forsake And other forms of being take, Then, too, do faithful wives purgue Their husbands all their wanderings through, The wife who first departs, awaits Her lord's approach at Hades' gates; When he dies first, the faithful wife, To join her spouse, resigns her life.
THE SAME. Mahabharata, xii. 5503ff. Her husband's chiefest treasure, friend, And comrade to his journey's end, - A wife in duty aids her lord, With gold she helps to swell his hoard; Assists in all his hours of joy, And seeks to spare him all annoy. A spouse devoted, tender, kind, Bears all her husband's wants in mind, Consults his ease, his wishes meets, With smiles his advent ever greets. He knows, when forced abroad to roam, That all is safe, with her at home. In doubt, in fear, in want, in grief, He turns to her, and finds relief. When racked by pain, by sickness worn, By outrage stung, by, anguish torn, Disturbed, perplexed, oppressed, forloru,
THE RESULTS OP YORESIGHT AND COURAGE AND THEIR
CONTRARIES.
Mahdbharata, i. 8404f. The prudent man, alive, awake, To all the turns events may take,The vigorous man, prepared to brave All strokes of fate, however grave, Is never taken by surprise When ills assail and troubles rise. Though laid by rude misfortune low, He does not faint beneath the blow, But, soon recovering strength, is fain To fight life's battle o'er again. His manly spirit nought dismaye, He strives and hopes for better days. But thoughtless men, who never see Th' approach of dire calamityOf yawning ruin never thinkUntil they stand upon its brink, When trouble comes, oppressed and scared For struggling 'gainst it unprepared, Succumb beneath the blows of fate, And rise no more to high estate,
Four stages in the religious life of a BrAhman, viz., those of the student, householder, anchorite, and mendicant, are recognized by Indian writers, and the last are generally regarded as representing an advance in perfec. tion. In one passage, however, at least, of the Mahabhd. rata, rü. 843ff., preference is given to the householder's Life, as more excellent than all the others; and an aban. donment of domestic life is characterized as folly. I have introduced this sentiment here, although it is not expressed in the original of the passage translated. 3"When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thon."-SIR WALTER SCOTT.
A continuation of the verses translated in Religion and Moral Sentiments, No. 64, and Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 202, No. 24.
• The word "fate" is used by me here merely in the Sense of calamity.
In these lines the ideas of the original are very much expanded. The following is & Dearly literal translation -
"The wise man is awake before the time of calamity. When it comes upon him he is never distressed. But the thoughtless man, who does not perceive that calamity is near, is distressed when it comes, and does not attain to great prosperity."
