strength of the intellect. Having provoked the hostility of a person who
is capable of inflicting great injury on a fellow creature, one should
not gather assurance from the thought that one liveth at a distance from
the other. Who that is wise that can place his trust on women, kings,
serpents, his own master, enemies, enjoyments, and period of life? There
are no physicians nor medicines for one that hath been struck by the
arrow of wisdom. In the case of such a person neither the mantras of
homa, nor auspicious ceremonies, nor the mantras of the Atharva Veda, nor
any of the antidotes of poison, are of any efficacy. Serpents, fire,
lions, and consanguineous relatives,--none of these, O Bharata, should be
disregarded by a man; all of these are possessed of great power. Fire is
a thing of great energy in this world. It lurketh in wood and never
consumeth it till it is ignited by others. That very fire, when brought
out by friction, consumeth by its energy not only the wood in which it
lurketh, but also an entire forest and many other things. Men of high
lineage are just like fire in energy. Endued with forgiveness, they
betray no outward symptoms of wrath and are quiet like fire in wood.
Thou, O king, with thy sons art possessed of the virtue of creepers, and
the sons of Pandu are regarded as Sala trees. A creeper never groweth
unless there is a large tree to twine round. O king, O son of Ambika, thy
son is as a forest. O sire, know that the Pandavas are the lions of that
forest. Without its lions the forest is doomed to destruction, and lions
also are doomed to destruction without the forest (to shelter them).'"



SECTION XXXVIII

"Vidura said, 'The heart of a young man, when an aged and venerable
person cometh to his house (as a guest), soareth aloft. By advancing