Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 02.djvu/98

hands is honorable. If a man is not in the evil way, that which places him there is the want of subordination to authority.

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If you take a wife, do not … Let her be more contented than any of her fellow-citizens. She will be attached to thee doubly, if her chain is pleasant.^[1] Do not repel her; grant that which pleases her; it is to her contentment that she appreciates thy direction.^[2]

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If thou hearest those things which I have said to thee,^[3] thy wisdom will be fully advanced. Although they are the means which are suitable for arriving at the Ma,^[4] and it is that which makes them precious, their memory would recede from the mouth of men. But thanks to the beauty of their arrangement in rhythm all their words will now be carried without alteration over this earth eternally.^[5] That will create a canvass to be embellished, whereof the great will speak, in order to instruct men in its sayings.^[6] After having listened to them the pupil will become a master,^[7] even he who shall have properly listened to the sayings because he shall have heard them. Let him win success by placing

1. "she being in the attachment doubly, sweet to her the bond."
2. "being her contentment, she appreciates the work."
3. The author has concluded his exposition of the wisdom of the ancients. He now speaks in his own name, and, while eulogizing the doctrines he has repeated, notices with satisfaction the perfect form he has given to them to prevent them from being effaced from the memory of men and to preserve them from alteration. Their rhythmic form allows neither omissions nor variations.
4. That is, to cause truth and justice to reign.
5. I do not think that a clearer statement can be found of the existence of a poetical language, rhythmically arranged, among the ancient Egyptians.
6. "The great will speak above; it is by explaining to a man the word." It therefore appears that the Precepts of Ptah-hotep were intended to be commented on by professors, and that there were schools of philosophy.
7. Abuu, "artist or "master-workman."