_Bhāravi._ 14. Reason is captive in the hands of the passions, as a weak man in the hands of an artful woman. _Sa’dī._ 15. Like an earthen pot, a bad man is easily broken, and cannot readily be restored to his former situation; but a virtuous man, like a vase of gold, is broken with difficulty, and easily repaired. _Hitopadesa._ 16. The son who delights his father by his good actions; the wife who seeks only her husband’s good; the friend who is the same in prosperity and adversity—these three things are the reward of virtue. _Bhartrihari._ 17. Let us not overstrain our abilities, or we shall do nothing with grace. A clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman. _La Fontaine._ 18. To abstain from speaking is regarded as very difficult. It is not possible to say much that is valuable and striking.[2] _Mahābhārata._ [2] Cf. James, III, 8. 19. Pagodas are, like mosques, true houses of prayer; ’Tis prayer that church bells waft upon the air; Kaaba and temple, rosary and cross, All are but divers tongues of world-wide prayer. _Omar Khayyām._ 20. In no wise ask about the faults of others, for he who reporteth the faults of others will report thine also. _Firdausī._ 21. He that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door, Embittering all his state. _Horace._ 22. Nothing is more becoming a man than silence. It is not the preaching but the practice which ought to be considered as the more important. A profusion of words is sure to lead to error. _Talmud._ 23. Consider, and you will find that almost all the transactions of the time of Vespasian differed little from those of the present day. You there find marrying and giving in marriage, educating children, sickness, death, war, joyous holidays, traffic, agriculture, flatterers, insolent pride, suspicions, laying of plots, longing for the death of others, newsmongers, lovers, misers, men canvassing for consulship—yet all these passed away, and are nowhere. _M. Aurelius._ 24. The friendship of the bad is like the shade of some precipitous bank with crumbling sides, which, falling, buries him who is beneath. _Bhāravi._ 25.