Grow weary, and desire instead
Your comfort; you are good and dead."
The corpse was silent. He was sure
'Twas better to be dead than poor.
Needless to say, worldly property need not be, indeed should not be, too extensive, since it has no value in possession, but only in use:
In case of horse or book or sword,
Of woman, man or lute or word,
The use or uselessness depends
On qualities the user lends.
Now for the positive content of niti. Granted security and freedom from degrading worry, then joy results from three occupations—from resolute, yet circumspect, use of the active powers; from intercourse with like-minded friends; and above all, from worthy exercise of the intelligence.
Necessary, to begin with, for the experience of true joy in the world of men, is resolute action. The difficulties are not blinked:
There is no toy
Called easy joy;
But man must strain
To body's pain.
Time and again this note is struck—the difficulty and the inestimable reward of sturdy action. Perhaps the most splendid expression of this essential part of niti is found in the third book, in the words which the crow, Live-Strong, addresses to his king, Cloudy:
