idleness, with people who will not do what
they should do. Rather,

"Nay! and faint not, idly sighing, 'Destiny is mightiest,'
Sesamum holds oil in plenty, but it yieldeth none unpressed.
Ah! it is the Coward's babble, 'Fortune taketh, Fortune gave;'
Fortune! rate her like a master, and she serves thee like a slave."

"For indeed,

"Twofold is the life we live in--Fate and Will together run:--
Two wheels bear life's chariot onward--will it move on only one?"

"And

"Look! the clay dries into iron, but the potter moulds the clay:--
Destiny to-day is master--Man was master yesterday."

"So verily,

"Worthy ends come not by wishing. Wouldst thou? Up, and win it, then!
While the hungry lion slumbers, not a deer comes to his den."

Having concluded his reflections, the Raja gave orders to assemble a
meeting of learned men. Then said he--

"Hear now, O my Pundits! Is there one among you so wise that he will
undertake to give the second birth of Wisdom to these my sons, by
teaching them the Books of Policy; for they have never yet read the
Sacred Writings, and are altogether going in the wrong road; and ye know
that

"Silly glass, in splendid settings, something of the gold may gain;
And in company of wise ones, fools to wisdom may attain."

Then uprose a great Sage, by name Vishnu-Sarman, learned in the
principles of Policy as is the angel of the planet Jupiter himself, and
he said--

"My Lord King, I will undertake to teach these princes Policy, seeing
they are born of a great house; for--

"Labors spent on the unworthy, of reward the laborer balk;
Like the parrot, teach the heron twenty times, he will not talk."

"But in this royal family the offspring are royal-minded, and in six
moons I will engage to make your Majesty's sons comprehend Policy."

The Raja replied, with condescension:--

"On the eastern mountains lying, common things shine in the sun,
And by learned minds enlightened, lower minds may show as one."

"And you, worshipful sir, are competent to teach my children the rules
of Policy."

So saying, with much graciousness, he gave the Princes into the charge
of Vishnu-Sarman; and that sage, by way of introduction, spake to the
Princes, as they sat at ease on the balcony of the palace, in this
wise:--

"Hear now, my Princes! for the delectation of your Highnesses, I purpose
to tell the tale of the Crow, the Tortoise, the Deer,