Part 29

"Wisdom from the mouth of children be it overpast of none; What man scorns to walk by lamplight in the absence of the sun?"

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"Strength serves Reason. Saith the Mahout, when he beats the brazen drum, 'Ho! ye elephants, to this work must your mightinesses come.'"

"Mighty natures war with mighty: when the raging tempests blow, O'er the green rice harmless pass they, but they lay the palm-trees low."

"Narrow-necked to let out little, big of belly to keep much, As a flagon is--the Vizier of a Sultan should be such."

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"He who thinks a minute little, like a fool misuses more; He who counts a cowry nothing, being wealthy, will be poor."

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"Brahmans, soldiers, these and kinsmen--of the three set none in charge: For the Brahman, though you rack him, yields no treasure small or large; And the soldier, being trusted, writes his quittance with his sword, And the kinsman cheats his kindred by the charter of the word; But a servant old in service, worse than any one is thought, Who, by long-tried license fearless, knows his master's anger nought."

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"Never tires the fire of burning, never wearies Death of slaying, Nor the sea of drinking rivers, nor the bright-eyed of betraying."

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"From false friends that breed thee strife, From a house with serpents rife, Saucy slaves and brawling wife-- Get thee forth, to save thy life."

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"Teeth grown loose, and wicked-hearted ministers, and poison trees, Pluck them by the roots together; 'tis the thing that giveth ease."

"Long-tried friends are friends to cleave to--never leave thou these i' the lurch: What man shuns the fire as sinful for that once it burned a church?"

"Raise an evil soul to honour, and his evil bents remain; Bind a cur's tail ne'er so straightly, yet it curleth up again."

"How, in sooth, should Trust and Honour change the evil nature's root? Though one watered them with nectar, poison-trees bear deadly fruit."

"Safe within the husk of silence guard the seed of counsel so That it break not--being broken, then the seedling will not grow."

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"Even as one who grasps a serpent, drowning in the bitter sea, Death to hold and death to loosen--such is life's perplexity."

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"Woman's love rewards the worthless--kings of knaves exalters be; Wealth attends the selfish niggard, and the cloud rains on the sea."

"Many a knave wins fair opinions standing in fair company, As the sooty soorma pleases, lighted by a brilliant eye."

"Where the azure lotus blossoms, there the alligators hide; In the sandal-tree are serpents. Pain and pleasure live allied."

"Rich the sandal--yet no part is but a vile thing habits there; Snake and wasp haunt root and blossom; on the boughs sit ape and bear."

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"As a bracelet of crystal, once broke, is not mended So the favour of princes, once altered, is ended."