THE HIGH ONE'S LAY
126. There is a mingling of affection, where one can tell another all his mind. Everything is better than being with the deceitful. He is not another's friend who ever says as he says.
127. I counsel thee, etc. Even in three words quarrel not with a worse man: often the better yields, when the worse strikes.
128. I counsel thee, etc. Be not a shoemaker, nor a shaftmaker, unless for thyself it be; for a shoe if ill made, or a shaft if crooked, will call down evil on thee.
129. I counsel thee, etc. Wherever of injury thou knowest, regard that injury as thy own; and give to thy foes no peace.
130. I counsel thee, etc. Rejoiced at evil be thou never; but let good give thee pleasure.
131. I counsel thee, etc. In a battle look not up, (like swine the sons of men then become) that men may not fascinate thee.
132. If thou wilt induce a good woman to pleasant converse, thou must promise fair, and hold to it: no one turns from good if it can be got.
133. I enjoin thee to be wary, but not over wary; as drinking be thou most wary, and with another's wife; and thirdly, that thieves delude thee not.
134. With insult or derision treat thou never a guest or wayfarer. They often little know, who sit within, of what race they are who come.
135. Vices and virtues the sons of mortals bear in their breasts mingled; no one is so good that no failing attends him, nor so bad as to be good for nothing.
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