  DEDICATION(TO FIRST EDITION)To you, dear Wife—to whom beside so well?— True Counsellor and tried, at every shift, I bring my "Book of Counsels:" let it tell Largeness of love by littleness of gift; And take this growth of foreign skies from me, (A scholar's thanks for gentle help in toil,) Whose leaf, "though dark," like Milton's Hoemony, "Bears a bright golden flower, if not in this soil." April 9, 1861. PREFACETO THE "BOOK OF GOOD COUNSELS."The Hitopadesa is a work of high antiquity and extended popularity. The prose is doubtless as old as our own era; but the intercalated verses and proverbs compose a selection from writings of an age extremely remote. The MahÁbhÁrata and the textual Veds are of those quoted; to the first of which Professor M. Williams (in his admirable edition of the Nala, 1860) assigns the modest date of 350 b.c., while he claims for the Rig-Veda an antiquity as high as 1300 b.c. The Hitopadesa may thus be fairly styled "The Father of all Fables;" for from its numerous translations have probably come Esop and Pilpay, and in latter days Reineke Fuchs. Originally compiled in Sanskrit, it was rendered, by order of NushirvÁn, in the sixth century a.d., into Persic. From the Persic it passed, a.d. 850, into the Arabic, and thence into Hebrew and Greek. In its own land it obtained as wide a circulation. The Emperor Akbar, impressed with the wisdom of its maxims and the PROVERBIAL WISDOMFROM THESHLOKAS OF THE HITOPADESA.This Book of Counsel read, and you shall see, Fair speech and Sanskrit lore, and Policy. "Wise men, holding wisdom highest, scorn delights, more false than fair; Daily live as if Death's fingers twined already in thy hair! "Truly, richer than all riches, better than the best of gain, Wisdom is; unbought, secure—once won, none loseth her again. "Bringing dark things into daylight, solving doubts that vex the mind, Like an open eye is Wisdom—he that hath her not is blind." Nor the sea of drinking rivers, nor the bright-eyed of betraying." "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." "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?" "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." "Even as one who grasps a serpent, drowning in the bitter sea, Death to hold and death to loosen—such is life's perplexity." "Woman's love rewards the worthless—kings of knaves exalters be; Wealth attends the selfish niggard, and the cloud rains on the sea." 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." "As a bracelet of crystal, once broke, is not mended So the favour of princes, once altered, is ended." "Wrath of kings, and rage of lightning—both be very full of dread; But one falls on one man only—one strikes many victims dead." On a lifeless heap of ashes fearlessly the foot is set." "Simple milk, when serpents drink it, straightway into venom turns; And a fool who heareth counsel all the wisdom of it spurns." "A modest manner fits a maid, And Patience is a man's adorning; But brides may kiss, nor do amiss, And men may draw, at scathe and scorning." "Serving narrow-minded masters dwarfs high natures to their size: Seen before a convex mirror, elephants do show as mice." "Elephants destroy by touching, snakes with point of tooth beguile; Kings by favour kill, and traitors murder with a fatal smile." Lacking him, she lacks adornment, howsoe'er her jewels gleam!" "Hairs three-lakhs, and half-a-lakh hairs, on a man so many grow— And so many years to Swarga shall the true wife surely go!" "When the faithful wife, embracing tenderly her husband dead, Mounts the blazing pyre beside him, as it were a bridal-bed; Though his sins were twenty thousand, twenty thousand times o'er-told, She shall bring his soul to splendour, for her love so large and bold." "Counsel unto six ears spoken, unto all is notified When a King holds consultation, let it be with one beside." Fools for teachers—and the man who keeps a secret, for a King." "With gift, craft, promise, cause thy foe to yield; When these have failed thee, challenge him afield." "The subtle wash of waves do smoothly pass, But lay the tree as lowly as the grass." "Ten true bowmen on a rampart fifty's onset may sustain; Fortalices keep a country more than armies in the plain." "Build it strong, and build it spacious, with an entry and retreat; Store it well with wood and water, fill its garners full with wheat." "Gems will no man's life sustain; Best of gold is golden grain." 'Mid the coronation trumpets he would gnaw his sandal-string." "'Tis no Council where no Sage is—'tis no Sage that fears not Law; 'Tis no Law which Truth confirms not—'tis no Truth which Fear can awe." "Though base be the Herald, nor hinder nor let, For the mouth of a king is he; The sword may be whet, and the battle set, But the word of his message goes free." "Better few and chosen fighters than of shaven-crowns a host, For in headlong flight confounded, with the base the brave are lost." "Kind is kin, howe'er a stranger—kin unkind is stranger shown; Sores hurt, though the body breeds them—drugs relieve, though desert-grown." "Betel-nut is bitter, hot, sweet, spicy, binding, alkaline— A demulcent—an astringent—foe to evils intestine; Giving to the breath a fragrance—to the lips |
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