No day, no hour, no moment, is my house Free from the clamour of my scolding spouse! My servants all are rogues; and so am I, Unless, for quiet’s sake, I join the cry. I aim, in all her freaks, my wife to please; I wage domestic war, in hopes of ease. I vain the hopes! and my fond bosom bleeds, To feel how soon to peace mad strife succeeds: To find, with servants jarring, or my wife, The worst of lawsuits is a married life. JOHANNES AUDŒMUS _TO A FRIEND IN DISTRESS_ I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend; For when at worst, they say, things always mend. _ADVICE TO PONTICUS_ Thou nothing giv’st, but dying wilt: then die: He giveth twice, who giveth speedily. BALTHASAR BONIFACIUS _DANGEROUS LOVE_ All whom I love die young; Zoilus, I’ll try, Tho’ loath’d, to love thee--that thou too may’st die. From Bhartrihari, an Indian philosopher who flourished about the ninth century, we select the following cynical paragraphs. * * * * * I believed that one woman was devoted to me, but she is now attracted by another man, and another man takes pleasure in her, while a second woman interests herself in me. Curses on them both, and on the god of love, and on the other woman, and on myself. * * * * * The fundamentally ignorant man is easily led, and the wise man still more easily; but not even the Almighty Himself can exercise any influence on the smatterer. * * * * * A man may tear the pearl from between the teeth of the crocodile; he may steer his ship over the roughest seas; he may twine a serpent round his brow like a laurel; but he cannot convince a foolish and stubborn opponent. * * * * * A man may squeeze oil from sand; he may slake his thirst from the well in a mirage; he may even obtain possession of a hare’s horn; but he cannot convince a foolish and stubborn opponent. * * * * * A dog will eat with delight the most noisome and decaying bones, and will pay no attention even if the ruler of the gods stands before him--and in like manner a mean man takes no heed of the worthlessness of his belongings. * * * * * Our nobility of birth may pass away; our virtues may fall into decay: our moral character may perish as if thrown over a precipice: our family may be burnt to ashes, and a thunderbolt may dash away our power like an enemy: let us keep a firm grip on our money, for without this the whole assembly of virtues are but as blades of glass. * * * * *