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14 children with piteous looks pulling at her worn-out clothes, what self-respecting man would for the mere sake of his own petty stomach utter "give me" (i. e. become a supplicant for favour) in a voice faltering and sticking at the throat for fear of his prayer being refused?

22. The pit of our stomach so hard to fill is the root indeed of no small undoing: it is ingenious in severing the vital knots, as it were, of our fond self-respect; it is like the bright moonlight shining on the lotus (that species which blooms only in the sun) of highly estimable virtues; it is the hatchet that hews down the luxuriant creepers of our great modesty.

23. For the sake of filling the cavity