This is the lofty consolation offered by a woodpecker to a hen-sparrow whose eggs have been crushed by an elephant with the spring fever. And the whole matter finds its most admirable expression in the noble words of Cheek, the jackal:
What is learning whose attaining
Sees no passion wane, no reigning
Love and self-control?
Does not make the mind a menial
Finds in virtue no congenial
Path and final goal?
Whose attaining is but straining
For a name, and never gaining
Fame or peace of soul?
This is niti, the harmonious development of the powers of man, a life in which security, prosperity, resolute action, friendship, and good learning are so combined as to produce joy. It is a noble ideal, shaming many tawdry ambitions, many vulgar catchwords of our day. And this noble ideal is presented in an artistic form of perfect fitness, in five books of wise and witty stories, in most of which the actors are animals.
III
Better with the learned dwell,
Even though it be in hell
Than with vulgar spirits roam
Palaces that gods call home.
—Panchatantra, Book II
The word Panchatantra means the "Five Books," the Pentateuch. Each of the five books is independ-
