Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/363

 THE NALADIYAR, 325 November, 1S73.] will be beneficial, since when it is imparted to ! others it is not diminished, since it renders its possessore illustrious, since they who have it during life suffer no loss, we see no medicine j like it which destroys delusion. 3. Wise people ■ take the salt produced in a barren soil to be ! more valuable than the rice of a fertile soil. Though they be of the lowest station, people who have acquired learning will be put in the chief place. 4. From the place in which it is stored up it cannot be stolen. It can suffer no harm, though to that place fire should come. Though very glorious kings rage, they cannot sear it. Therefore wisdom, and nothing else, is what one who intends to lay up an inheritance for his children should acquire. 5. Learn¬ ing has no bounds; the students’ days are few. Would they calmly reflect, diseases are many. Let them carefully investigate and make them¬ selves acquainted with those things which are essential, making a good choice like the swan, which drinks the milk and leaves the water. fi. They will not despise the boatman because ho is at the lower end among the old castes. Lo, by his assistance they pass the river! And like this is getting advantage through the help of a man who has learned books. 7. Let me see whether the joy of associating with those | who possess the qualities which arc derived from I indestructible ancient learning, who are with- ; out hatred and also very acute, be not as sweet as dwelling in Amravuti, the city of the gods, in the wide expanse of heaven. 8. Lord of the cool shore of the roaring ocean ! the friend¬ ship of those who have acquired learning is like eating sugar-cane from the top (downwards). Attachment to those who are graceless and des¬ titute of good qualities is like eating it from the root (upwards), having rejected the top. t). Though unlearned, if they walk in the society of the learned they will daily acquire good un¬ derstanding, as a new (earthen) vessel by con¬ tact with the bright-coloured Padiri flower gives (its scent) to the water itself. 10. If a ! man learn ever so much, instead of studying the books of wisdom, the reading of worldly books is all of the nature of mere noise: there are none who can discover from them the way to rid themselves of sorrow. Chapter 15.—High Birth. 1. A noble family will not decrease in (good) qualities, even when their clothes are torn aud their body wasted. Even when trouble comes upon him, will the lion devour the long grass ? 2. Manliness, goodness, right conduct, these three belong to those who are born in a sky-touching family. But, 0 lord of the hill-country covered by the clouds which touch the sky! they fall not to the share of others, even though they have acquired great riches. 3. Rising from their seat and going to meet (a stranger), leav¬ ing others, these the high-born have assumed as their unflinching rule of conduct. It is not their nature to be reckoned one with the mean. 4. If he do good things, it is conformable to (his) nature ; if bad, it wiltbe a fault despicable in tins eyes of many : and in this case what is the profit to him of being born in a family known to all ? 5. (To those born in a good family) there is fear of ignorance, fear of doing the deeds of the base, fear that anything which ought not to be spoken may escape from them, fear of not giving anything to those who beg for all. Brutish are they who are born in a family destitute of these graces. G. Goodness of relatives, pleasant words, liberality, and every other good quality of the mind, all these, O lord of the cool shore of the roaring ocean, where the large gems and pearls shed their lustre ! meet in those who are born in a good family. 7. Though the build¬ ing be decayed, and the white ants have col¬ lected together, a large house may nevertheless have a wing not fallen. So those who are born in a high family, even when they suffer distress, will do the things they ought to do. 8. Like the moon, which enlightens the beautiful wide and extended earth on one side, though the ser¬ pent (athisesha) hold it in the other, those who are bom in a good family will not slacken in well-doing, though poverty be against them. 9. The tilings which even in poverty those will do who are bom in a high family, the vulgar will not do, even though they be rich. The deer, though it should be harnessed (for war), is not strong enough to fight like the charger. 10. The high-born, even when they have not anything, will approach those who are in want, and be a prop when they totter. 'When the broad river (bed) is dug up, though it be dry, yet clear water will soon appear. Chapter 1G—The Good. 1. The moon, which sheds its beams abroad over tho beautiful and wide-spread sky, and the good, are like each other. But the moon