compare with the good, ambrosia, or the moon, or the Ganges; and with the bad, poison, or fire, or the river Karmnasa. Virtue and vice are known to all; but whatever is to a man's taste that seemeth him good. Doha 6. The good aim at goodness, and the vile at vileness; ambrosia is esteemed for giving immortality, and poison for causing death Chaupai 6. Why enumerate the faults and defects of the bad and the virtues of the good? both are a boundless and unfathomable ocean. Hence occasionally virtue is reckoned as vice, improperly and from want of discrimination. For God hath created both, but it is the Veda that has distinguished one from the other. The heroic legends and the Puranas also, no less than the Vedas, recognize every kind of good and evil as creatures of the Creator: pain and pleasure; sin and religious merit ; night and day; saint and sinner; high caste and low caste; demons and gods; great and small; ambrosia and life; poison and death; the visible world and the invisible God; life and the lord of life; rich and poor; the beggar and the king; Kasi and Magadha²; the Gauges and the Karamnasa; the desert of Marwar and the rich plain of Malwa; the Brahman and the butcher heaven and hell; sensual passion and asceticism; the Vedas and the Tantras, and every variety of good and evil. : Doha 7. The Creator has made the universe to consist of things. animate and inanimate good and evil; a saint like a swan extracts the milk of goodness and rejects the worthless water.3 heavenly nymphs, the Apsaras; the goddess of beauty, Lakshmi or Sri ; and the physician of the gods, Dhanvantari. The cup of nectar which the latter held in his hand was seized and quaffed by the gods; while the poison, which also was produced, was either claimed by the snake gods or swallowed by Mahadeva; whence comes the blackness of his throat, that gives him the name of Nil-kanth. 1 "I did not know sin, but by the law."-St. Paul. 2 Magadha (Bihar) is taken as the opposite to Kasi, in consequence of its being the birthplace of Buddhism. 3 To the swan (raj-hans) is ascribed the fabulous faculty or being able to separate milk from water, after the two have been mixed together,   7 Chaupai 7. When the Creator gives men this faculty of judgment they abandon error and become enamoured of the truth; but conquered by time, temperament, or fate, even the good, as a result of their humanity, may err from virtue; but Hari takes their body-so to speak-and corrects it, and, removing all sorrow and sin, cleanses it and glorifies them. If the bad through intercourse with the good do good, their inherent badness is not effaced. An impostor of fair outward show may be honoured on account of his garb, but in the end he is exposed and does not succeed, like Kalanemi, or Ravan, or Rahu. The good are honoured, not withstanding their mean appearance, like bear Jamavant or the monkey Hanuran. Bad company is loss, and good" company is gain; this is a truth recognized both by the world and the Veda. In company with the wind the dust flies heavenwards; if it joins water, it becomes mud and sinks. According to the character of the house in which a parrot or maina is trained, it learns either to repeat the name of Rama or to give abuse. With the ignorant, soot is mere refuse; but it may make good ink, and be used even for copying a Purana; while water, fire, and air combined become an earth-refreshing rain-cloud. Doha 8-11. The planets, medicines, water, air, clothes, all are good or bad things according as their accompaniments are good or bad; and people observe this distinction. Both lunar fortnights are equal as regards darkness and slight; but a difference in name has been wisely made, and as the moon waxes or wanes the fortnight is held in high or low esteem. Knowing that the whole universe, whether animate or inanimate, is pervaded by the spirit of Rama, I reverence with clasped hands the lotus feet of all gods, giants, men, serpents, birds, ghosts, departed ancestors, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, demons of the night -I pray ye all be gracious to me. 1 Kala-nemi by assuming the form of an ascetic imposed for a time upon Hanuman, as Ravan did upon Sita: and even Vishnu, at the churning of the ocean, was at first deceived by Rahu, who appeared like one of the gods,   Chaupai 8. By four modes of birth are produced 84 lakhs of species inhabiting the air, the water and the earth. With clasped hand I perform an act of adoration, recognizing the whole world as pervaded by the spirit of Sita and Rama. In your compassion regard me as your servant, and dissembling no longer, be kind and affectionate. I have no confidence in the strength of my own wisdom, and therefore I supplicate you all. I would narrate the great deeds of Raghupati, but my ability is little and his acts unfathomable. I am conscious that I have no skill or capacity; my intellect in short is beggarly, while my ambition is imperial; I am thirsting for nectar, when not even skim-milk is to be had. Good people, all pardon my presumption and listen to my childish babbling, as a father and mother delight to hear the lisping prattle of their little one. Perverse and malignant fools may laugh, who pick out faults in others. wherewith to adorn to adorn themselves. Every one is pleased with his own rhymes, whether they be pungent or insipid; but those who praise another's voice are good men, of whom there are few in the world; there are many enough like the rivers, which on getting a rainfall swell out a flood of their own, but barely one like the generous ocean, which swells on beholding the fulness of the moon. Doha 12. My lot is low, my purpose high, hut I am confident of one thing, that the good will be gratified to hear me, though fools may laugh. Chaupai 9. The laughter of fools will be grateful to me; the crow calls the koil's voice harsh. The goose ridicules the swan, and the frog the chatak; so the low and vile abuse pure verse. As they have no taste for poetry nor love for Rama, I am glad that they should laugh. If my homely speech and poor wit are fit subjects for laughter, let them laugh; it is no fault of mine. If they have no understanding of 1 The four akaras, or modes of birth, are named pindaja, or viviparous; andaja, or oviparous ; swedaja, born in sweat, like lice; and dbhija, pro duced by sprouting like a tree. The 81 lakhs of species are divided as follows 9 lakhs of aquatic creatures, 27 lakhs of those attached to the earth, 11 lakhs of insects, 10 lakhs of birds, 23 lakhs of quadrupeds, and 4 lakhs of The literal meaning of akara being a mine, khani, which has the same primary signification, is used for it in Chaupai 44. men.   9 true devotion to Lord, the tale will seem insipid enough: but to the true and orthodox worshippers of Hari and Hara the story of Raghubar will be sweet as honey. The singer's devotion to Ram will by itself be sufficient embellishment to make the good hear and praise the melody. Though no poet, nor clever, nor accomplished; though unskilled in every art and science; though all the elegant devices of letters and rhetoric, the countless variations of metre, the infinite divisions of sentiment and style, and all the defects and excellences of verse, and the gift to distinguish between them are unknown to me. I declare and record it on a fair white sheet - Doha 13. That though my style has not a single charm of its own, it has a charm known throughout the world, which meu of discernment will ponder as they readChaupai 10. The gracious name of Raghupati; all-purifying essence of the Puranas and the Veda, abode of all that is auspicious, destroyer of all that is inauspicious, ever murmured in prayer by Uma and the great Tripurari. The most elegant composition of the most talented poet has no real beauty if the name of Rama is not in it in the same way as a lovely woman adorned with the richest jewels is vile if unclothed. But the most worthless production of the feeblest versifier, if adorned with the name of Rama, is heard and repeated with reverence by the wise, who extract what is good in it, like bees gathering honey though the poetry has not a single merit, the glory of Rama is manifested thereby.