"Say the sages, nine things name not: Age, domestic joys and woes,
Counsel, sickness, shame, alms, penance; neither Poverty disclose.
Better for the proud of spirit, death, than life with losses told;
Fire consents to be extinguished, but submits riot to be cold."
"As Age doth banish beauty,
As moonlight dies in gloom,
As Slavery's menial duty
Is Honour's certain tomb;
As Hari's name and Hara's
Spoken, charm sin away,
So Poverty can surely
A hundred virtues slay."
"Half-known knowledge, present pleasure purchased with a future woe,
And to taste the salt of service—greater griefs no man can know."
"All existence is not equal, and all living is not life;
Sick men live; and he who, banished, pines for children, home, and wife;
And the craven-hearted eater of another's leavings lives,
And the wretched captive, waiting for the word of doom, survives;
But they bear an anguished body, and they draw a deadly breath;
And life cometh to them only on the happy day of death."
"Golden gift, serene Contentment! have thou that, and all is had;
Thrust thy slipper on, and think thee that the earth is leather-clad."
"All is known, digested, tested; nothing new is left to learn
When the soul, serene, reliant, Hope's delusive dreams can spurn."
"Hast thou never watched, awaiting till the great man's door unbarred?
Didst thou never linger parting, saying many a sad last word?
Spak'st thou never word of folly, one light thing thou would'st recall?
Rare and noble hath thy life been! fair thy fortune did befall!"
"True Religion!—'tis not blindly prating what the gurus prate,
But to love, as God hath loved them, all things, be they small or great;
And true bliss is when a sane mind doth a healthy body fill;
And true knowledge is the knowing what is good and what is ill."