Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/99

Rh Majesty." Fulfilment of these bears great fruit; non-fulfiment brings great calamity. By those who fail neither heaven nor the royal favour can be Won;' and so forth.

He essayed the impossible task of supervising personally the affairs of his wide dominions. 'I never feel satisfaction,' he exclaims, 'in my exertions and dispateh of business. For work I must for the welfare of all the folk; and of that, again, the root is energy, and the dispatch of business; for nothing is more essential than the welfare of all the folk.' Thus he toiled through a long life, priding himself especially on his accessibility to suitors at all hours and in all places, even the most inconvenient. Such accessibility, although inconsistent with really eﬂicient government, is always highly popular in India, where the people never can be persuaded that a ruler may arrange his time more proﬁtably than by exposing himself to incessant interruption. The European critic feels that if Asoka had worked less hard he would have done better work, but must admit that in spite of his defects of method he was wonderfully successful in holding together for forty years an empire rarely exceeded in magnitude. Asoka's procedure was in accordance with the practice of his grandfather, who heard cases even while he was being massaged by his attendants, and with Chânakya's rule, which reads like an extract from the edicts:

'The King, therefore, shall personally attend to the business