is not in one's hands,—the one is not knowledge, and the other not wealth, when occasion arises.[1]
14.
The criterion of water is the water-lily; of a race, discipline and discourse; of wisdom, the words that are uttered; and of the ground, the fading of the grass.
15.
A man of little learning deems that little a great deal; he is proud: a frog not seeing the water of the sea,[2] considers it as much as the water in a well.
16.
One who, in the first place, has not acquired knowledge, in the second, has not obtained wealth, and, thirdly, has not acquired the "Law"[3]—what will he do in the fourth place?
17.
Children, be wise; wherefore are ye idle? One without wisdom is the bearer of another's burden. A wise man is honoured in the world; day by day be ye wise, O children.
18.
A mother is an enemy, a father is an enemy. Wherefore? Because their offspring, being uneducated in their youth, are as unbecoming in an assembly as cranes among swans.[4]
19.
Who gives the point to a mountain thorn? Who gives
- ↑ Kicce samupanne, "when occasion arises." According to Čâṇakya, "the time of action."
- ↑ The Japanese proverb says, "A frog in a well sees nothing of the high seas."
- ↑ The Buddhist Scriptures—the Tipiṭaka—as furnishing the rules for religious duties, &c.
- ↑ "Brahmanic ducks" of golden hue. It is possible that the flamingo (Phœnisopterus ruber) is referred to by Indian writers. The lower eastern part of the delta of the Irawadi was called Haṃsavatî ("valley of haṃsas). Hiuen Taiang, the Chinese pilgrim, refers to the tract as being included in Kâmalaṇkâ.
