the gods; for if thou conductest thyself like them, discontent shall
disappear from among men, and the two lands shall work for thee!' The
majesty of this god says: 'Instruct me in the language of old times, for
it will work a wonder for the children of the nobles; whosoever enters
and understands it, his heart weighs carefully what it says, and it does
not produce satiety.'" We must not expect to find in this work any great
profundity of thought. Clever analyses, subtle discussions, metaphysical
abstractions, were not in fashion in the time of Phtahhotpu. Actual
facts were preferred to speculative fancies: man himself was the subject
of observation, his passions, his habits, his temptations and his
defects, not for the purpose of constructing a system therefrom, but in
the hope of reforming the imperfections of his nature and of pointing
out to him the road to fortune. Phtahhotpu, therefore, does not show
much invention or make deductions. He writes down his reflections just
as they occur to him, without formulating them or drawing any conclusion
from them as a whole. Knowledge is indispensable to getting on in the
world; hence he recommends knowledge. Gentleness to subordinates is
politic, and shows good education; hence he praises gentleness. He
mingles advice throughout on the behaviour to be observed in the various
circumstances of life, on being introduced into the presence of a
haughty and choleric man, on entering society, on the occasion of dining
with a dignitary, on being married. "If thou art wise, thou wilt go
up into thine house, and love thy wife at home; thou wilt give her
abundance of food, thou wilt clothe her back with garments; all that
covers her limbs, her perfumes, is the joy of her life; as long as thou
lookest to this, she is as a profitable field to her master." To analyse
such a work in detail is impossible: it is still more impossible to
translate the whole of it. The nature of the subject, the strangeness of
certain precepts, the character of the style, all tend to disconcert the
reader and to mislead him in his interpretations. From the very earliest
times ethics has been considered as a healthy and praiseworthy subject
in itself, but so hackneyed was it, that a change in the mode of
expressing it could alone give it freshness. Phtahhotpu is a victim
to the exigencies of the style he adopted. Others before him had given
utterance to the truths he wished to convey: he was obliged to clothe
t