Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/56

observed in visiting and speaking to the prince etc. Mood is the state of mind that is prepared to receive in good part what he (the envoy) is going to say. As it depends on time the author mentions time also. The place referred to is the place where there are men who are friendly to the ambassador. Deliberation consists in imagining the words that he is going to use, the possible replies of the other side, his own rejoinders etc. in all their possible developments. As the northern writers (Sanskrit authors) add the carriers of written messages to the other two classes of ambassadors (explained in the commentator's note to the title of the chapter as he who speaks only what he is told to speak, and he who is allowed a wide discretion as to what he is to speak, the word speak being used in the sense of negotiating), and classify envoys into three classes, namely, first (lit. head), second (lit. the middle), and third (lit. lowest or last), our author uses the word head so as to apply to their classification also. The word ambassador is supplied by the title of the chapter. These five verses (683 to 687) describe the qualifications of the