Part 26

"Good men's friendships may be broken, yet abide they friends at heart; Snap the stem of Luxmee's lotus, but its fibres will not part."

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"One foot goes, and one foot stands, When the wise man leaves his lands."

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"Over-love of home were weakness; wheresoe'er the hero come, Stalwart arm and steadfast spirit find or make for him a home. Little recks the awless lion where his hunting jungles lie-- When he enters them be certain that a royal prey shall die."

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"Very feeble folk are poor folk; money lost takes wit away: All their doings fail like runnels, wasting through the summer day."

"Wealth is friends, home, father, brother--title to respect and fame; Yea, and wealth is held for wisdom--that it should be so is shame."

"Home is empty to the childless; hearts to those who friends deplore: Earth unto the idle-minded; and the three worlds to the poor."

"Say the sages, nine things name not: Age, domestic joys and woes, Counsel, sickness, shame, alms, penance; neither Poverty disclose. Better for the proud of spirit, death, than life with losses told; Fire consents to be extinguished, but submits riot to be cold."

"As Age doth banish beauty, As moonlight dies in gloom, As Slavery's menial duty Is Honour's certain tomb;

As Hari's name and Hara's Spoken, charm sin away, So Poverty can surely A hundred virtues slay."

"Half-known knowledge, present pleasure purchased with a future woe, And to taste the salt of service--greater griefs no man can know."

"All existence is not equal, and all living is not life; Sick men live; and he who, banished, pines for children, home, and wife; And the craven-hearted eater of another's leavings lives, And the wretched captive, waiting for the word of doom, survives; But they bear an anguished body, and they draw a deadly breath; And life cometh to them only on the happy day of death."

"Golden gift, serene Contentment! have thou that, and all is had; Thrust thy slipper on, and think thee that the earth is leather-clad."

"All is known, digested, tested; nothing new is left to learn When the soul, serene, reliant, Hope's delusive dreams can spurn."

"Hast thou never watched, awaiting till the great man's door unbarred? Didst thou never linger parting, saying many a sad last word? Spak'st thou never word of folly, one light thing thou would'st recall? Rare and noble hath thy life been! fair thy fortune did befall!"

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"True Religion!--'tis not blindly prating what the gurus prate, But to love, as God hath loved them, all things, be they small or great; And true bliss is when a sane mind doth a healthy body fill; And true knowledge is the knowing what is good and what is ill."

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"Poisonous though the tree of life be, two fair blossoms grow thereon: One, the company of good men; and sweet songs of Poets, one."

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"Give, and it shall swell thy getting; give, and thou shalt safer keep: Pierce the tank-wall; or it yieldeth, when the water waxeth deep."

"When the miser hides his treasure in the earth, he doeth well; For he opens up a passage that his soul may sink to hell."

"He whose coins are kept for counting, not to barter nor to give, Breathe he like a blacksmith's bellows, yet in truth he doth not live."

"Gifts, bestowed with words of kindness, making giving doubly dear: Wisdom, deep, complete, benignant, of all arrogancy clear; Valour, never yet forgetful of sweet Mercy's pleading prayer; Wealth, and scorn of wealth to spend it--oh! but these be virtues rare!"

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"Sentences of studied wisdom, nought avail they unapplied; Though the blind man hold a lantern, yet his footsteps stray aside."