"A perfect man should be, in firmness and ability, equal to eight women; and to satisfy a woman, a man must be able to please her in nine different manners.
"A bad man is like a fire, which inflames every thing which approaches it; we, therefore, ought never to go near it with an intention to extinguish it. A good man, on the contrary, is like a sweet-scented tree, which continues to produce flowers and fruit, pleasant to the taste and smell of every one, and the fragrance of which remains in the wood even after the tree is cut down and rooted out.
"When a harlot begins to feel shame, then is her improvement approaching; but when a holy man begins to meddle with worldly affairs, then is he about to become a worldly man himself.
"When a prince allows encroachments to be made on his territories, it is a sign that the loss of both his court and lands is nigh at hand.
"A man may receive instruction from his gúru (instructor) until his twentieth year: after which he should apply himself to study until his thirtieth year; at which time he ought to know every thing necessary, as well for this world as for that to come.
"The art of elocution may properly be reckoned superior to all others, because happiness and misery, fortune or misfortune, very often depend upon it: it is, therefore, necessary to use prudence in speech.
"A man who does not eat síri (betel) does not shine.
"Married people who have no children ought to lead a retired life, and people without fortune should not attempt to make a shining appearance: they should look pale and melancholy, like unto the dullness and quiet of a country without a prince.
"These are the qualities necessary to constitute a good housewife:—She must be well-made and well-mannered, gentle, industrious, rich, liberal, charming, of good birth, upright, and humble. A stingy, curious, dirty, foul-mouthed, vulgar, false, intriguing, lazy, or stupid woman, is not only entirely unfit for a housewife, but will never be beloved by a husband."
Intimately connected with the character, moral and intellectual, of a people, are its civil and political institutions. In a country like Java, the frame of society is so simple, the hand of power is so universally felt or seen; rank, wealth, and authority are so identified, and the different classes of the community are so referable to each other, by contrast or reciprocal influence, that it was impossible to give any account of the state of the peasantry, or of the tenure and distribution of the land, without introducing some notices concerning government and revenue. As there is little division of labour among a rude people, so there is no division of power in a despotism: the despot is proprietor, all the rest is property.