s. As regards
thyself, avoiding idleness and restraining thy senses, do everything in
the world with proper means. Manu himself has said that victory depends
upon intelligence. All acts that are accomplished with the aid of
intelligence are regarded as the foremost, those achieved with the aid of
arms are middling, those achieved with the aid of feet are inferior,
while those done by carrying loads are the lowest. If the king is clever
in the transaction of business and restrains his senses, his kingdom
endures. Manu himself has said that it is with the aid of the
intelligence that an ambitious person succeeds in achieving victories. In
this world, O Yudhishthira, they who listen to wise counsels that are not
generally known, that are, O sinless one, possessed of allies, and that
act after proper scrutiny, succeed in achieving all their objects. A
person possessed of such aids succeeds in ruling the entire earth. O thou
that art possessed of prowess like that of Indra himself, this has been
said by wise men of ancient times conversant with the ordinances laid
down in the scriptures. I, also, with sight directed to the scriptures,
have said the same to thee. Exercising thy intelligence, do thou act in
this world, O king!"'"

SECTION CXIII

"'Yudhishthira said, "Tell me, O bull of Bharata's race, how a king,
without the usual aids, having obtained a kingdom that is so precious a
possession, behave himself towards a powerful foe."

"'Bhishma said, "In this connection is cited the old story of the discourse
between the Ocean and the Rivers. In days of old, eternal Ocean, that
lord of Rivers, that refuge of the foes of the celestials, asked all the
Rivers for resolving this doubt that had arisen in his mind.

"'"The Ocean said, 'Ye Rivers, I see that all of you, with your full
currents, bring away trees of large trunks, tearing them off with their
roots and branches. Ye do not, however, ever bring to me a cane. The
canes that grow on your banks are of mean stems and destitute of
strength. Do you refuse to wash them down through contempt, or are they
of any use to you? I desire, therefore, to hear what the motive is that
inspires all of you. Indeed, why is it that canes are not washed down by
any of you, uprooted from the banks where they grow?' Thus addressed, the
River Ganga, replied unto Ocean, that lord of all Rivers, in these words
of grave import, fraught with reason, and, therefore, acceptable to all.

"'"Gang