“Both he who respectfully bestows a present, and he who respectfully
   accepts it, shall go to a seat of bliss; but, if they act otherwise, to
   a region of horror.

   “Let not a man be proud of his rigorous devotion; let him not, having
   sacrificed, utter a falsehood; let him not, though injured, insult a
   priest; having made a donation, let him never proclaim it.

   “By falsehood the sacrifice becomes vain; by pride the merit of
   devotion is lost; by insulting priests life is diminished; and by
   proclaiming a largess its fruit is destroyed.

   “For in his passage to the next world, neither his father, nor his
   mother, nor his wife, nor his son, nor his kinsmen will remain his
   company; his virtue alone will adhere to him.

   “Single is each man born; single he dies; single he receives the reward
   of his good, and single the punishment of his evil deeds.”

From Book V., “On Diet":—­

   “The twice-born man who has intentionally eaten a mushroom, the flesh
   of a tame hog, or a town cock, a leek, or an onion, or garlic, is
   degraded immediately.

   “But having undesignedly tasted either of those six things, he must
   perform the penance santapana, or the chandrayana, which anchorites
   practise; for other things he must fast a whole day.

   “One of those harsh penances called prajapatya the twice-born man must
   perform annually, to purify him from the unknown taint of illicit food;
   but he must do particular penance for such food intentionally eaten.

   “He who injures no animated creature shall attain without hardship
   whatever he thinks of, whatever he strives for, whatever he fixes his
   mind on.

   “Flesh meat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the
   slaughter of animals obstructs the path to beatitude; from flesh meat,
   therefore, let man abstain.

   “Attentively considering the formation of bodies, and the death or
   confinement of embodied spirits, let him abstain from eating flesh meat
   of any kind.

   “Not a mortal exists more sinful than he who, without an oblation to
   the manes or the gods, desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh
   of another creature.

   “By subsisting on pure fruit and on roots, and by eating such grains as
   are eaten by hermits, a man reaps not so high a reward as by carefully
   abstaining from animal food.

“In lawfully tasting meat, in drinking fermented liquor, in caressing women, there is no turpitude; for to such enjoyments men are naturally prone, but a virtuous abstinence from them produces a signal compensation.

   “Sacred learning, austere devotion, fire, holy aliment, earth, the
   mind, water, smearing with cow-dung, air, prescribed acts of religion,
   the sun, and time are purifiers of embodied spirits.