of the forest as a young quail. He had come out of the egg some nights before, and could not fly, his tender wings having still to grow both in height and in width; in his very small and weak body the different limbs, principal and minor, were hardly discernible. So he dwelt with his numerous brothers in the nest which his parents had built with great care and made impervious by a strong covering of grass. This nest was placed on a creeper within a thicket. Yet, still in this existence, he had not lost his consciousness of the Law, and would not feed on such living beings as his father and mother offered to them, but exclusively sustained himself by (the vegetable food) which was brought by his parents: grass-seeds, figs of the banian tree, &c. In consequence of this coarse and insufficient nourishment, his body did not thrive nor would his wings develop. The other young quails, on the contrary, who fed on everything offered to them, became strong and got full-grown wings. For this, indeed, is an invariable rule:
1. He who, not anxious about the precepts of the Law, eats everything, will thrive at his ease, but such a one as seeks for his livelihood in accordance with the precepts, and is careful about the choice of his food, will endure pain in this world[1].
Now, while they were living in this manner, a great forest-conflagration took place not far from them. It
- ↑ Here follows an interpolation, which the editor of the original has placed within brackets. It is a quotation, which was originally no doubt a marginal note. Here is its translation:
'This is also declared by our Lord in the two gâthâs: "Easy is the livelihood &c."
2. 'Easy is the livelihood of the shameless crow, that bold and impetuous animal, who practises impure actions, but it is a very sinful life.
3. 'But the modest one who always strives after purity has a hard livelihood, the bashful one who is scrupulous and sustains himself only by pure modes of living.
'This couple of gâthâs is found in the Âryasthâvirîyanikâya.'
The gâthâs quoted are substantially and partly verbally the same as two stanzas of the Dhammapada (244 and 245) that are their Pâli counterpart.
