CLVII. Good advice not to be wasted on fools.
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?
CLVIII. Ability necessary for acquiring knowledge. Mahābhārata, ii. 2485; x. 178 f.; ii. 1945.
No teaching e'er a blockhead shows
What's right, what's wrong, or makes him sage;
No child in understanding grows
Mature in sense, with growing age.
The wise who proffer learning's boon.
To stupid men, their labour waste:
Though filled with juices sweet, a spoon
Their pleasant flavour cannot taste.
But able men, though taught in haste
Truth, right, and wrong, can quickly learn.
The feeling tongue and palate taste,
And flavours sweet and sour discern.
CLIX. The pain inflicted by harsh words.
Mahabharata, xiii. 4985 f. v. 1172 f.
The wound a foeman's trenchant steel
Inflicts, in time again will heal;
The tree a woodman's axe o'erthrows
Soon sprouts again, and freshly grows;
But never more those wounds are closed,
Which harsh and cutting words have caused.
The shafts men's flesh which pierce and gall,-
A leech's skill draws out them all.
No power extracts the sharp word-dart,
Which rankles, bedded in the heart.
Mahabharata, xiii. 4986; v. 1266.
The tongue discharges shafts of speech,
Which cut and torture those they reach.
They light on none but tender parts,
They burn men's vitals, bones, and hearts:
Let none shoot forth those cruel darts.
CLXI. Harsh speech.
Mahābhārata, i. 3559; v. 1267.
Of all men him most luckless deem
With thorns of speech who others tears,
Who on his lips, with taunts that teem,
Destruction's cursing Goddess bears.
[Compare the expressions in Psalms li. 2; lv. 21; lvii. 4; and lxiv. 3, 4.]
CLXII. Disregard of good advice.
Mahabharata, v. 4348; compare v. 4143 ff.
That self-willed man his foes delights,
Who, ill advised, the counsel slights
Of those sage friends who wish him well,
And how to help him, best can tell.
Whoe'er the prudent counsel slights,
Of honest friends who wish him well,
And best the safest course can tell,-
That fool his foeman's hearts delights.
CLXIII. The same.
Mahabharata 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.
CLXIV. The claims and duties of friendship. Mahabharata v. 3317.
That mortal sages heartless call
Who does not help his friends in need,
Who does not kindly warn and lead,
Whene'er they seem about to fall.
He merits praise, who, urged by care
His friend from folly back to hold,
Should use all means, and waxing bold,
Should even seize him by the hair.
CLXV. A real friend.
Mahāhbarata, xii. 2998 f.; xii. 6284 ff.
He is a genuine friend who, free
From every taint of jealousy,
Regards with constant joy and pride
Thy fortune's ever-rising tide ;-
Whose heart, again, within him sinks
Whene'er of ills of thine he thinks.
The man whose sympathising heart
In all thy joys and woes takes part,
Who as his own misfortunes treats
Thy woes, reverses, wrongs, defeats,
In him with perfect faith confide,
As in a father, brother, guide.
CLXVI. Broken friendships neber thoroughly cemented.
Things well compact are hard to crack,
And broken things are hard to mend ;
So shattered friendships, patched up, lack
The love that marked the former friend.
Mahabharata v. 1348; compare v. 1097; ii. 2136;Manu iv. 138.
Bland courtly men are found with ease,
Who utter what they know will please;
But honest men are far to seek,
Who bitter truths and wholesome speak.
So, too, those thoughtful men are rare
Who blunt and sound advice can bear.
A prince's best ally is he,
The man from servile truckling free,
Who faithful counsel gives, nor fears
With truth to wound his patron's ears;
Not he who spares him present pain
At certain cost of future bane.
CLXVIII. Dishonest eulogists and secret detractors.
Mahabharata xii. 4221.
The men who praise you, bland and bright,
Before you,-rail behind your back,
Are dogs that dread a front attack,
But slink behind your heels to bite.
CLXIX. Ebil of revengefulness.
Mahabharata xii. 4225.
The injured man who weakly longs
To pay base slanderers back their wrongs,
Is like the ass which loves to lie
And roll in ashes dirtily.
CLXX. Results of foresight and courage and their
contraries.
Mahabharata i. 8404 f.
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 dismays,
He strives and hopes for better days.
*The word "fate" is used by me here merely in the sense of calamity.
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