Whether the learned praise thee or not (is of little

consequence');

The face of a beauty needs not the tire-woman.

SADI'S GULISTÂN.*

Single is every living creature born,
Single he passes to another world,
Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds,

Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves
His body like a log or heap of clay

Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away;
Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb

And bears him through the dreary trackless gloom. †

-MANU.

Happy (is) the man who carries off the ball of

virtue.

Send on to thy grave some provision for the life (to come):

No one will bring it after thee, send it in advance thyself.

-SADI'S GULISTÂN.*

No virtue is acquired in an instant, but step by step.

-BARROW.

To make a man virtuous three things are necessary: 1. Natural parts and disposition.

2. Precepts and instruction.

3. Use and practice, which is able better to correct the first and improve the latter.

• Translated by Platts.

† From Indian Wisdom by Monier Williams.

--LOCKE.

He cannot be virtuous that is not rigorous.
--MORAL MAXIM.

Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her, and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them. Those that seek her early will find her before it is late; her reward also is with her, and she will come quickly. --COLTON.

If a man have ability daily to press forward with vigour towards virtue, I have never seen that diligence fail. *

-CONFUCIUS.

The surest and the shortest way to beloved and honoured is indeed to be the

make yourself

very man you

wish to appear. Set yourself, therefore, diligently to the attaining of every virtue, and you will find on experience that no one whatsoever but will flourish and gain strength when properly exercised.

SOCRATES.

A hermitage cannot cause virtue. Virtue comes from practice. Therefore what is unpleasant to oneself must not be done to others.

-YAJNAVALKYA.

While the evil results occasionally flowing from wealth are sufficiently manifest, it is not certain, on this account, that virtue is only safe in the midst of penury, or even in moderate circumstances. Nor, because the wealthy are often miserable, is it certain that happiness dwells chiefly with the humble. It may be quite true

* From Marshman's Works of Confucius.

that no elevation, such as riches bring about, insures perfect purity and amiableness of character, and that content is found nowhere; and yet there may be a more steady connexion between virtue and easy circumstances, and also between content and easy circumstances, than between the same things and poverty.

It is only, indeed, to be expected that an increasing ease of circumstances should be, upon the whole, favourable to moral progress, for it is what industry tends to; and industry is a favoured ordination of Heaven.

-R. CHAMBERS.

It was with profound wisdom that the Romans called by the same name courage and virtue.

There is in fact victory over our

no virtue, properly so called, without
selves, and what costs us nothing, is worth nothing.

-DE MAISTRE.

The road to eminence and power, from obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. The temple of honour ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be opened through virtue, let it be remembered that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

-BURKE.

Virtue's no virtue whiles it lives secure ;
When difficulty waits on't, then 'tis pure.

-QUARLES.

Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant, when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. -BACON.

By the descent of calamities are men's virtues proved, and by long absence are their friendships tested.

--" JAVIDAN-KHIRAD."*

Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt;
Surprised by unjust force, but not inthrall'd.

The triumphs that on vice attend
Shall ever in confusion end;

The good man suffers but to gain,
And every virtue springs from pain :
As aromatic plants bestow

-MILTON.

No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crush'd, or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.

-GOLDSMITH.

Virtue's like gold :—the ore's alloy'd by earth,
Trouble, like fire, refines the mass to birth;
Tortur'd the more, the metal purer grows,

And seventimes try'd with new effulgence grows!
Exults superior to the searching flame,

And rises from affliction into fame!

-BOYSE.

Virtue may choose the high or low degree,
'Tis just alike to Virtue and to me;

Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king,

She is still the same belov'd contented thing.

-POPE.

• From Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals, by D. J. Medhora.

If I'm traduced by tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing-let me say,

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake That virtue must go through.

-SHAKESPEARE.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives.

-G. HERBERT.

Virtue alone, her own sufficient wages,
At fortune smiles securely and contemns
The pomp of office, with the fleeting glory,
Of popular applause: for outside wealth
She cares not; needs no praise from others;
Proud of true riches; by calamity
Unmoved; she from her lofty citadel
Looks down on things that perish.*

-CLAUDIAN.

When frowning fates thy sanguine hopes defeat,
And virtuous aims with disappointment meet,
Submit not to despair, th' attempt renew,
And rise superior to the vulgar crew.†

A man's virtues are pearls, and the thread on which they are strung is the fear of God; break the thread, and the pearls are lost one by one.

-JEWISH SAYING.

Moderation is the silken string running through the

pearl chain of all virtues.

-BISHOP HALL.

*From Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his son.

From Bewick's Select Fables.