The following passages are from Book II., “On Education and the Priesthood":—­

   “Self-love is no laudable motive, yet an exemption from self-love is
   not to be found in this world:  on self-love is grounded the study of
   Scripture, and the practice of actions recommended in it.

“Eager desire to act has its root in expectation of some advantage; and with such expectation are sacrifices performed; the rules of religious austerity and abstinence from sins are all known to arise from hope of remuneration.

   “Not a single act here below appears ever to be done by a man free from
   self-love; whatever he perform, it is wrought from his desire of a
   reward.

“He, indeed, who should persist in discharging these duties without any view to their fruit, would attain hereafter the state of the immortals, and even in this life would enjoy all the virtuous gratifications that his fancy could suggest.

“The most excellent of the three classes, being girt with the sacrificial thread, must ask food with the respectful word Dhavati at the beginning of the phrase; those of the second class with that word in the middle; and those of the third with that word at the end.

   “Let him first beg food of his mother, or of his sister, or of his
   mother’s whole sister; then of some other female who will not disgrace
   him.

   “Having collected as much of the desired food as he has occasion for,
   and having presented it without guile to his preceptor, let him eat
   some of it, being duly purified, with his face to the east.

   “If he seek long life, he should eat with his face to the east; if
   prosperity, to the west; if truth and its reward, to the north.

“When the student is going to read the Veda he must perform an ablution, as the law ordains, with his face to the north; and having paid scriptural homage, he must receive instruction, wearing a clean vest, his members being duly composed.

“A Brahman beginning and ending a lecture on the Veda must always pronounce to himself the syllable om; for unless the syllable om precede, his learning will slip away from him; and unless it follow, nothing will be long retained.

   “A priest who shall know the Veda, and shall pronounce to himself, both
   morning and evening, that syllable, and that holy text preceded by the
   three words, shall attain the sanctity which the Veda confers.

“And a twice-born man, who shall a thousand times repeat those three (or om, the vyahritis, and the gayatri) apart from the multitude, shall be released in a month even from a great offence, as a snake from his slough.

   “The three great immutable words, preceded by the triliteral syllable,
   and followed by the gayatri, which consists of three measures, must be
   considered as the mouth, or principal part of the Veda.