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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
