21. Boys are subject to fear and voracity; they are helpless but fond of every thing they have seen or heard, and equally fickle in their bodies and mind. Hence boyhood is a source of troubles only. 22. The foolish and helpless child, becomes as sad and sour when he fails to get the object of his fancy, as when he is thwarted from the thing desired. 23. Children have much difficulty to get at the things they want, and which they can ask only by indistinct words. Hence no one suffers so much as boys. 24. A boy is as much irritated by the eagerness of his whimsical desires, as a patch of ground in the desert is parched by the summer heat. 25. A boy on entering his school, is subjected to corrections, which are as painful to him as the goading and fetters to the elephant. 26. A great many whims and hobbies, and a variety of false fancies, tend continually to afflict boyhood, which is ever fond of toys and trifles. 27. How can senseless childhood be said to be a happy state of life, when the child is led by its ignorance to swallow everything in the world, and to wish to lay hold on the moon in the sky. 28. Say great sage! what difference is there between a child and a tree, both of which have sensitiveness, but unable to defend themselves from heat and cold. 29. Boys are of the nature of birds, being both subject to fear and hunger, and ready to fly about when impelled by them. 30. Again boyhood is the abode of fear from all sides; such as from the tutor, father, mother, elder brother and elderly boys, and from every body besides. 31. Hence the hopeless state of childhood, which is full of faults and errors, and addicted to sports and thoughtlessness, cannot be satisfactory to any body. CHAPTER XX. VITUPERATION OF YOUTH. Ráma continued:— The boy having passed his state of blemishes, gladly steps to his youth with hopes of gaining his objects that tend only to his ruin. 2. The insensible youth feels at this time the wanton inclinations of his loose mind, and goes on falling from one tribulation to another. 3. He is overcome as one subdued by the power of delusive Cupid, lying hidden in the cavity of the heart (hence called _Manoja_). 4. His ungoverned mind gives rise to loose thoughts like those of voluptuous women, and these serve to beguile him like the magic collyrium (in the hand) of boys (called _Siddhánjana_). 5. Vices of the most heinous kind betake persons of such (perverse) minds in their youth, and lead them to their ruin. 6. The paths of youth lead them to the gate of hell through a maze of errors. Those that have been left uncorrupt by their youth, are not to be corrupted by anything else. 7. Whoso has passed the dreadfully enchanted coast of youth, fraught with various flavours and wonders, are said to be truly wise.