Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/141

 Another of these poems (x. 117) consists of a collection of maxims inculcating the duty of well-doing and charity:—


 * Who has the power should give unto the needy,
 * Regarding well the course of life hereafter:
 * Fortune, like two chariot wheels revolving,
 * Now to one man comes nigh, now to another.


 * Ploughing the soil, the share produces nurture;
 * He who bestirs his feet performs his journey;
 * A priest who speaks earns more than one who's silent;
 * A friend who gives is better than the niggard.

The fourth of these poems (x. 71) is composed in praise of wise speech. Here are four of its eleven stanzas:—


 * Where clever men their words with wisdom utter,
 * And sift them as with flail the corn is winnowed,
 * There friends may recognise each other's friendship:
 * A goodly stamp is on their speech imprinted.


 * Whoever his congenial friend abandons,
 * In that man's speech there is not any blessing.
 * For what he hears he hears without advantage:
 * He has no knowledge of the path of virtue.


 * When Brahman friends unite to offer worship,
 * In hymns by the heart's impulse swiftly fashioned,
 * Then not a few are left behind in wisdom,
 * While others win their way as gifted Brahmans.


 * The one sits putting forth rich bloom of verses,
 * Another sings a song in skilful numbers,
 * A third as teacher states the laws of being,
 * A fourth metes out the sacrifice's measure.

Even in the ordinary hymns are to be found a few moralising remarks of a cynical nature about wealth and women, such as frequently occur in the ethical literature of the post-Vedic age. Thus one poet