6. APPEARANCES.

Don't trust to appearances.

The appearance of things does not appear the same when seen far off and close at hand.

-EURIPIDES.

Judge not of men or things at first sight.

-MORAL MAXIM.

Every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.

How little we know of each other,

As we pass through the journey of life,
With its struggles, its fears, and temptations—
Its heart-breaking cares and its strife.
We can only see things on the surface,
For few people glory in sin;

And an unruffled face is no index

To the tumult which ranges within.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

-CAMPBELL.

The colour of the skin is not always the colour of

the soul, there is black tea in white cups.

All that glisters is not gold,
Gilded tombs do worms infold.

-SHAKESPEARE.

A gem may dangle at the feet, and glass may be raised upon the head; still at the time of buying and selling, glass is glass, and a gem is a gem.

"HITOPADESHA.' 99*

An ape is an ape and a varlet a varlet,
Though they be clad in silk and scarlet.

Yet gold all is not that doth golden seem;
Ne all good knights that shake well spear and shield;
The worth of all men by their end esteem;
And then due praise or due reproach them yield.
-SPENSER.

'Tis the frame of most men's spirits to adore the casket and condemn the jewel cabinetted in it.

-HEWYT.

He's the greatest monster, without doubt,
Who is a wolf within, a sheep without.

-DENHAM.

Straws swim upon the surface, but pearls lie at the bottom. Showy parts strike every common eye, but solid parts are duly discerned by most accurate observers of the human head and heart.

Sincerity is to speak as we think; to do as we pretend and profess; to perform and make good what we promise; and really to be what we would seem and appear to be.

Prof. Johnson's edition..

7. AVARICE.

To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice.

-BEATTIE.

Avarice knows no God but gold, no happiness but gain, no fear but loss of wealth, and no friendship that hath not a profit in it.

As the fishes in a pond fondly grasp the bait in expectation of a sop, so do the avaricious lay hold on anything, be it wood, or stone, or even a straw.

-"YOGA VASISTHA.”*

Most wretched wight, whom nothing might suffise;
Whose greedy lust did lacke in greatest store;
Whose need had end, but no end covetise;
Whose welth was want; whose plenty made him pore;
Who had enough, yet wished evermore;

A vile disease: and eke in foote and hand

A grievous gout tormented him full sore;

That well he could not touch, nor goe, nor stand:
Such one was Avarice.

-SPENSER.

When covetousness gains a complete ascendancy engrossing the whole man, it forms that compound of all that is mean mean and despicable, that monster of moral deformity, usually called a miser. In our day the tribe is not very numerous, for should they multiply they would certainly create a desert around them. I know

Translated by Vihâri Lâlâ Mitra.

of no passion which so deeply agitates and degrades, so effectually enslaves, and destroys the soul as covetousness. The man who sets his heart upon riches, must necessarily be a stranger to peace and enjoyment. Fear, care, anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy place him on a constant rack. To the toil of getting is added the trouble of keeping his pelf. Avarice is insatiable as the grave, or rather as a gulf without bottom. The more this passion is supplied with fresh fuel, the more vehement is the flame. -RUSTICUS.

He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house. "BIBLE-PROVERBS.”

The covetous man is the bailiff, not the master, of his own estate.

-OLD ITALIAN PROVERB.

Covetousness alone is a great destroyer (of merit and goodness). From covetousness proceeds sin. It is from this source that sin and irreligiousness flow, together with great misery. This covetousness is the spring also of all the cunning and hypocrisy in the world. It is covetousness that makes men commit sin. -"MAHABHARATA."

As for charity, that is never to be hoped for from a covetous man, who dreads the lessening of his own heaps, more than the starving of his poor brother. You see how great a sin this is, that we may well say of it as the apostle doth, 1 Tim VI 10. The love of money is the root of all evil. And it is not much less uneasy than wicked; for between the care of getting and the fear of losing, the covetous man enjoys no quiet hour.

"THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN."

He who greedily seeks honours and riches. may be compared to a man suffering with thirst, which he tries to quench with the water of the sea. The more he drinks, the more he wants to drink, till at last he dies of drinking it.

-ARABIC PROVERB.

Base is the man who pines amidst his store,
And fat with plenty, griping, covets more:
But doubly vile, by av'rice when betray'd,
He quits the substance for an empty shade.*

Avarice in old age is foolish: for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach our journey's end.

-CICERO.

Expel avarice from your heart, so shall you loose

the chains from off your neck.

-"JAVIDAN KHIRAD."t

Covet not that which belongs to others.

-MORAL MAXIM.

If you wish to destroy avarice, you must destroy luxury, which is its mother.

-CICERO.

Gaming is the child of avarice, but the parent of

prodigality.

-COLTON.

From Bewick's Select Fables.

† From Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals by D. J. Medhora.