reposed trust on another cutteth off one's very roots. One should
renounce envy, protect one's wives, give to others what is their due, and
be agreeable in speech. One should be sweet-tongued and pleasant in his
address as regards one's wives, but should never be their slave. It hath
been said that wives that are highly blessed and virtuous, worthy of
worship and the ornaments of their homes, are really embodiments of
domestic prosperity. They should, therefore, be protected particularly.
One should devolve the looking over of his inner apartments on his
father; of the kitchen, on his mother; of the kine, on somebody he looks
upon as his own self, but as regards agriculture, one should look over it
himself. One should look after guests of the trader-caste through his
servants, and those of the Brahmana caste through his sons. Fire hath its
origin in water; Kshatriyas in Brahmanas; and iron in stone. The energy
of those (i.e., fire, Kshatriyas, and iron) can affect all things but is
neutralised as soon as the things come in contact with their progenitors.
Fire lieth concealed in wood without showing itself externally. Good and
forgiving men born of high families and endued with fiery energy, do not
betray any outward symptoms of what is within them. That king whose
counsels cannot be known by either outsiders or those about him, but who
knoweth the counsels of others through his spies, enjoyeth his prosperity
long. One should never speak of what one intends to do. Let anything thou
doest in respect of virtue, profit, and desire, be not known till it is
done. Let counsels be not divulged. Ascending on the mountain-top or on
the terrace of a palace, or proceeding to a wilderness devoid of trees
and plants, one should, in secrecy, mature his counsels. O Bharata,
neither a friend who is without learning, nor a learned friend who hath
no control over his senses, deserveth to be a repository of state
secrets. O king, never make one thy minister without examining him well,
for a king's finances and the keeping of his counsels both depend on his
minister. That king is the foremost of rulers, whose ministers know his