sleep cautiously like the deer; he should be blind when it is necessary that he should be so, or he should even be deaf when it is necessary to be deaf.  The king possessed of wisdom should put forth his prowess, regardful of time and place.  If these are not favourable, prowess becomes futile.  Marking timeliness and untimeliness reflecting upon his own strength and weakness, and improving his own strength by comparing it with that of the enemy, the king should address himself to action.  That king who does not crush a foe reduced to subjection by military force, provides for his own death like the crab when she conceives.  A tree with beautiful blossoms may be lacking in strength.  A tree carrying fruits may be difficult of climbing; and sometimes trees with unripe fruits look like trees with ripe fruits.  Seeing all these facts a king should not allow himself to be depressed.  If he conducts himself in such a way, then he would succeed in upholding himself against all foes.  The king should first strengthen the hopes (of those that approach him as suitors).  He should then put obstacles in the way of the fulfilment of those hopes.  He should say that those obstacles are merely due to occasion.  He should next represent that those occasions are really the results of grave causes.  As long as the cause of fear does not actually come, the king should make all his arrangements like a person inspired with fear.  When, however, the cause of fear comes upon him, he should smite fearlessly.  No man can reap good without incurring danger.  If, again, he succeeds in preserving his life amid danger, he is sure to earn great benefits.[423] A king should ascertain all future dangers; when they are present, he should conquer them; and lest they grow again, he should, even after conquering them, think them to be unconquered.  The abandonment of present happiness and the pursuit of that which is future, is never the policy of a person possessed Of intelligence.  The king who having made peace with a foe sleeps happily in truthfulness is like a man who sleeping on the top of a tree awakes after a fall.  When one falls into distress, one should raise one’s self by all means in one’s power, mild or stern; and after such rise, when competent, one should practise righteousness.  The king should always honour the foes of his foes.  He should take his own spies as agents employed by his foes.  The king should see that his own spies are not recognised by his foe.  He should make spies of atheists and ascetics and send them to the territories of his enemies.  Sinful thieves, who offend against the laws of righteousness and who are thorns in the side of every person, enter gardens and places of amusement and houses set up for giving drinking water to thirsty travellers and public inns and drinking spots and houses of ill fame and holy places and public assemblies.  These should be recognised and arrested and put down.  The king should not trust the person that does not