Greek.  In its own land it obtained as wide a circulation.  The Emperor Acbar, impressed with the wisdom of its maxims and the ingenuity of its apologues, commended the work of translating it to his own Vizir, Abdul Fazel.  That minister accordingly put the book into a familiar style, and published it with explanations, under the title of the “Criterion of Wisdom.”  The Emperor had also suggested the abridgment of the long series of shlokes which here and there interrupt the narrative, and the Vizir found this advice sound, and followed it, like the present Translator.  To this day, in India, the “Hitopadesa,” under other names (as the “Anvari Suhaili"[1]), retains the delighted attention of young and old, and has some representative in all the Indian vernaculars.  A work so well esteemed in the East cannot be unwelcome to Western readers, who receive it here, a condensed but faithful transcript of sense and manner.

As often as an Oriental allusion, or a name in Hindoo mythology, seemed to ask some explanation for the English reader, notes have been appended, bearing reference to the page.  In their compilation, and generally, acknowledgment is due to Professor Johnson’s excellent version and edition of the “Hitopadesa,” and to Mr. Muir’s “Sanscrit Texts.”

A residence in India, and close intercourse with the Hindoos, have given the author a lively desire to subserve their advancement.  No one listens now to the precipitate ignorance which would set aside as “heathenish” the high civilization of this great race; but justice is not yet done to their past development and present capacities.  If the wit, the morality, and the philosophy of these “beasts of India” (so faithfully rendered by Mr. Harrison Weir) surprise any vigorous mind into further exploration of her literature, and deeper sense of our responsibility in her government, the author will be repaid.

Edwin Arnold.

[1] “The Lights of Canopus,” a Persian paraphrase; as the “Khirad Afroz,” “the lamp of the Understanding,” is in Hindustani.

THE BOOK OF GOOD COUNSELS

INTRODUCTION

HONOR TO GUNESH, GOD OF WISDOM

    This book of Counsel read, and you shall see,
    Fair speech and Sanscrit lore, and Policy.

On the banks of the holy river Ganges there stood a city named Pataliputra.  The King of it was a good King and a virtuous, and his name was Sudarsana.  It chanced one day that he overheard a certain person reciting these verses—­

    “Wise men, holding wisdom highest, scorn delights, as false as fair,
    Daily live they as Death’s fingers twined already in their hair.

    Truly, richer than all riches, better than the best of gain,
    Wisdom is, unbought, secure—­once won, none loseth her again.

    Bringing dark things into daylight, solving doubts that vex the mind,
    Like an open eye is Wisdom—­he that hath her not is blind.”