Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/46

 of the book; and as you read them you almost see the pouting lips and indignant eyes, and hear the hard words of the wife to the husband. But every pet ends in a petting which is only the more enjoyable for the quarrel that preceded it. For "bouderie is the salt of love."

It is because the second section deals with the actions and feelings of the chaste wife in the absence of her lord that the author has given it the title of Chastity.

The above is a very inadequate description of the treasure which the reader will find spread out before him by the poet for his enlightenment as well as enjoyment in the 133 chapters of his book. Whether he speaks of moral duties or state policy, of the principles of action to be followed in order to succeed in life, or of the varying emotions in the trembling hearts of lovers, everywhere Tiruvalluvar has sounded the utmost depths of human thought. The prophets of the world have not emphasised the greatness and power of the Moral Law with greater insistence or force; Bhîshma or Kauṭilya or Kâmandaka or Râm Dâs or Vishnu Sharman or Macchiavelli have no more Rh