Book of Wise Sayings

Book of Wise Sayings, by W. A.
Clouston

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Title: Book of Wise Sayings Selected Largely from Eastern Sources
Author: W. A. Clouston
Release Date: April 18, 2007 [EBook #21130]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BOOK OF
WISE SAYINGS

SELECTED LARGELY FROM EASTERN SOURCES
BY
W. A. CLOUSTON
Author of "Popular Tales and Fictions," "Literary Coincidences, and
other Papers," "Flowers from a Persian Garden," etc.

"Concise sentences, like darts, fly abroad and make impressions, while
long discourses are tedious and not regarded."--BACON.
"Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books
enrolled."--MILTON.

LONDON PUBLISHED BY HUTCHINSON & CO.
AT 34 PATERNOSTER ROW 1893

PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) BY H. C. A. THIEME OF
NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND)
AND
TALBOT HOUSE, ARUNDEL STREET LONDON, W.C.

TO
FRANCIS THORNTON BARRETT,
CHIEF LIBRARIAN, MITCHELL LIBRARY, GLASGOW,
THIS LITTLE BOOK,

WITH FRIENDLY GREETINGS,
IS INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.
Cynics may ask, how many have profited by the innumerable proverbs
and maxims of prudence which have been current in the world time out
of mind? They will say that their only use is to repeat them after some
unhappy wight has "gone wrong." When, for instance, a man has
played "ducks and drakes" with his money, the fact at once calls up the
proverb which declares that "wilful waste leads to woful want"; but did
not the "waster" know this well-worn saying from his early years
downwards? What good, then, did it do him? Again, how many have
been benefited by the saying of the ancient Greek poet, that "evil
communications corrupt good manners"?--albeit they had it frequently
before them in their school "copy-books." Are the maxims of morality
useless, then, because they are so much disregarded?
When a man has reached middle-age he generally feels with tenfold
force the truth of those "sayings of the wise" which he learned in his
early years, and has cause to regret, as well as wonder, that he had not
all along followed their wholesome teaching. For it is to the young,
who are about to cross the threshold of active life, that such terse
convincing sentences are more especially addressed, and, spite of the
proverbial heedlessness of youth, there will be found many who are not
deaf to this kind of instruction, if their moral environment be
favourable. But, even after the spring-time of youth is past, there are
occasions when the mind is peculiarly susceptible to the force of a
pithy maxim, which may tend to the reforming of one's way of life.
There is commonly more practical wisdom in a striking aphorism than
in a round dozen of "goody" books--that is to say, books which are not
good in the highest sense, because their themes are overlaid with
commonplace and wearisome reflections.
May we not find the "whole duty of man" condensed into a few brief

sentences, which have been expressed by thoughtful men in all ages
and in countries far apart?--such as: "Love thy neighbour as thyself,"
"Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The chief
themes of all teachers of morality are: benevolence and beneficence;
tolerance of the opinions of others; self-control; the acquisition of
knowledge--that jewel beyond price; the true uses of wealth; the
advantages of resolute, manly exertion; the dignity of labour; the
futility of worldly pleasures; the fugacity of time; man's individual
insignificance. They are never weary of inculcating taciturnity in
preference to loquacity, and the virtues of patience and resignation.
They iterate and reiterate the fact that true happiness is to be found only
in contentment; and they administer consolation and infuse hope by
reminding us that as dark days are followed by bright days, so times of
bitter adversity are followed by seasons of sweet prosperity; and thus,
like the immortal Sir Hudibras, when "in doleful dumps", we may
"cheer ourselves with ends of verse, and sayings of philosophers."
In the following small selection of aphorisms, a considerable
proportion are drawn from Eastern literature. Indian wisdom is
represented by passages from the great epics, the Mahábhárata and the
Rámáyana; the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa, two Sanskrit
versions of the famous collection of apologues known in Europe as the
Fables of Bidpaï, or Pilpay; the Dharma-sastra of Manu; Bháravi,
Mágha, Bhartrihari, and other Hindu poets. Specimens