• other worlds and regents of worlds, could give being to new gods and mortals?

6

316. What man, defirous of life, would injure those, by the aid of whom, that is, by whofe oblations, worlds and gods perpetually fubfift; those who are rich in the learning of • the Véda?

6

317. A Bráhmen, whether learned or ignorant, is a powerful divinity; even as fire is a 'powerful divinity, whether confecrated or popular.

318. Even in places for burning the dead, the bright fire is undefiled; and, when pre* fented with clarified butter at subsequent sacrifices, blazes again with extreme splendour:

6

319. Thus, although Bráhmens employ themselves in all forts of mean occupation, they must invariably be honoured; for they are fomething transcendently divine.

320. Of a military man, who raises his arm violently on all occafions against the ⚫ priestly class, the priest himself shall be the chaftifer; fince the foldier originally proceed⚫ed from the Bráhmen.

321. 'From the waters arofe fire; from the priest, the foldier; from stone, iron: their allpenetrating force is ineffectual in the places, whence they refpectively fprang.

322. The military clafs cannot profper

' without the facerdotal, nor can the facerdotal 'be raised without the military: both claffes, by ' cordial union, are exalted in this world and in the next.

323. 'SHOULD the king be near his end through Some incurable difeafe, he must bestow on the

priests all his riches accumulated from legal • fines; and, having duly committed his king'dom to his fon, let him feek death in battle, or, if there be no war, by abstaining from food.

324. Thus conducting himself, and ever 'firm in discharging his royal duties, let the king employ all his ministers in acts beneficial to his • people.

325. Thefe rules for the conduct of a mi'litary man having been propounded, let man'kind next hear the rules for the commercial and fervile claffes in due order.

• his

326. LET the Vaifya, having been girt with proper facrificial thread, and having mar'ried an equal wife, be always attentive to his bufinefs of agriculture and trade, and to that of keeping cattle;

327. 'Since the lord of created beings, having formed herd, and flocks, intrusted them to the care of the Vaifya, while he intrusted the ' whole human species to the Bráhmen and the • Chhatriya:

328. Never must a Vaisya be disposed to say,

"I keep no cattle;" nor, he being willing to keep them, muft they by any means be kept by men of another clafs.

329. • Of gems, pearls, and coral, of iron, ' of woven cloth, of perfumes and of liquids, let ⚫ him well know the prices both high and low:

330. Let him be skilled likewife in the time • and manner of sowing feeds, and in the bad or good qualities of land; let him alfo perfectly know th ccorrect modes of measuring and weighing,

331. The excellence or defects of commo dities, the advantages and difadvantages of ⚫ different regions, the probable gain or loss on vendible goods, and the means of breeding cattle with large augmentation:

332. Let him know the juft wages of fer· vants, the various dialects of men, the beft • way of keeping goods, and whatever else be* longs to purchase and sale,

6

6

333. Let him apply the most vigilant care ' to augment his wealth by performing his duty; and, with great folicitude, let him give nou• rifhment to all fentient creatures.

334. SERVILE attendance on Bráhmens learned in the Veda, chiefly on fuch as keep house and are famed for virtue, is of itself the highest duty of a Súdra, and leads him to future beatitude:

6

335. Pure in body and mind, humbly ferving the three higher claffes, mild in fpeech, never

arrogant, ever feeking refuge in Brahmens principally, he may attain the most eminent elafs in another tranfmigration.

336. THIS clear system of duties has been • promulgated for the four claffes, when they are not in diftrefs for fubfiftence; now learn in order their feveral duties in times of necef

fity.'

CHAPTER THE TENTH.

On the mixed Claffes; and on Times of Diftrefs.

1. LET the three twiceborn claffes, remaining firm in their several duties, carefully read the Véda; but a Bráhmen must explain it to them, not a man of the other two claffes: this is an established rule.

2. The Bráhmen must know the means of • fubfiftence ordained by law for all the claffes, and muft declare them to the reft: let himfelf likewise act in conformity to law.

3. From priority of birth, from superiority of origin, from a more exact knowledge of fcripture, and from a distinction in the facri'ficial thread, the Bráhmen is the lord of all • claffes.

4. The three twiceborn claffes are the fa'cerdotal, the military, and the commercial; but the fourth, or fervile, is onceborn, that is, • has no fecond birth from the gáyatrí, and wears thread: nor is there a fifth pure clafs.

< no

5. IN all claffes they, and they only, who are born, in a direct order, of wives equal in