idge._

338.

Entangled in a hundred worldly snares,
Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded,
Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches.
Then, in their self-complacency, they say,
"This acquisition I have made to-day,
That will I gain to-morrow, so much pelf
Is hoarded up already, so much more
Remains that I have yet to treasure up.
This enemy I have destroyed, him also,
And others in their turn, I will despatch.
I am a lord; I will enjoy myself;
I'm wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy;
I'm absolutely perfect; no one else
In all the world can be compared to me.
Now will I offer up a sacrifice,
Give gifts with lavish hand, and be triumphant."
Such men, befooled by endless vain conceits,
Caught in the meshes of the world's illusion,
Immersed in sensuality, descend
Down to the foulest hell of unclean spirits.[16]

_Mahabharata._

[16] Cf. Luke, XII, 17-20; see also 291.

339.

There needs no other charm, nor conjuror,
To raise infernal spirits up, but Fear,
That makes men pull their horns in, like a snail,
That's both a prisoner to itself and jail;
Draws more fantastic shapes than in the grains
Of knotted wood, in some men's crazy brains,
When all the cocks they think they are, and bulls,
Are only in the insides of their skulls.

_Butler._

340.

He that rectifies a crooked stick bends it the contrary way, so must
he that would reform a vice learn to affect its mere contrary, and
in time he shall see the springing blossoms of a happy restoration.

_R. Chamberlain._

341.

The more weakness the more falsehood; strength goes straight: every
cannon ball that has in it hollows and holes goes crooked.

_Richter._

342.

Learning dissipates many doubts, and causes things otherwise
invisible to be seen, and is the eye of everyone who is not
absolutely blind.

_Hitopadesa._

343.

Very distasteful is excessive fame
To the sour palate of the envious mind,
Who hears with grief his neighbours good by name,
And hates the fortune that he ne'er shall find.

_Pindar._

344.

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this,
that when the injur