The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep, part 3/5
If you are with people who display for you an
extreme affection, saying: "Aspiration of my heart, aspiration of my
heart, where there is no remedy! That which is said in your heart, let it be
realized by springing up spontaneously. Sovereign master, I give myself to your
opinion. Your name is approved without speaking. Your body is full of vigor,
your face is above your neighbors." If then you are accustomed to this
excess of flattery, and there be an obstacle to you in your desires, then your
impulse is to obey your passion. But he who . . . according to his caprice, his
soul is . . ., his body is . . . While the man who is master of his soul is
superior to those whom Ptah has loaded with his gifts; the man who obeys his
passion is under the power of his wife.
Declare your line of conduct without reticence;
give your opinion in the council of your lord; while there are people who turn
back upon their own words when they speak, so as not to offend him who has put
forward a statement, and answer not in this fashion: "He is the great man
who will recognize the error of another; and when he shall raise his voice to
oppose the other about it he will keep silence after what I have said."
If you are a leader, setting forward your plans
according to that which you decide, perform perfect actions which posterity may
remember, without letting the words prevail with you which multiply flattery,
which excite pride and produce vanity.
If you are a leader of peace, listen to the
discourse of the petitioner. Be not abrupt with him; that would trouble him.
Say not to him: "You have already recounted this." Indulgence will
encourage him to accomplish the object of his coming. As for being abrupt with
the complainant because he described what passed when the injury was done,
instead of complaining of the injury itself let it not be! The way to obtain a
clear explanation is to listen with kindness.
If you desire to excite respect within the house
you enter, for example the house of a superior, a friend, or any person of
consideration, in short everywhere where you enter, keep yourself from making
advances to a woman, for there is nothing good in so doing. There is no
prudence in taking part in it, and thousands of men destroy themselves in order
to enjoy a moment, brief as a dream, while they gain death, so as to know it.
It is a villainous intention, that of a man who thus excites himself; if he
goes on to carry it out, his mind abandons him. For as for him who is without
repugnance for such an act, there is no good sense at all in him.
If you desire that your conduct should be good
and preserved from all evil, keep yourself from every attack of bad humor. It
is a fatal malady which leads to discord, and there is no longer any existence
for him who gives way to it. For it introduces discord between fathers and
mothers, as well as between brothers and sisters; it causes the wife and the
husband to hate each other; it contains all kinds of wickedness, it embodies
all kinds of wrong. When a man has established his just equilibrium and walks
in this path, there where he makes his dwelling, there is no room for bad
humor.
Be not of an irritable temper as regards that
which happens at your side; grumble not over your own affairs. Be not of an
irritable temper in regard to your neighbors; better is a compliment to that
which displeases than rudeness. It is wrong to get into a passion with one's
neighbors, to be no longer master of one's words. When there is only a little
irritation, one creates for oneself an affliction for the time when one will
again be cool.
If you are wise, look after your house; love
your wife without alloy. Fill her stomach, clothe her back; these are the cares
to be bestowed on her person. Caress her, fulfil her desires during the time of
her existence; it is a kindness which does honor to its possessor. Be not
brutal; tact will influence her better than violence; her . . . behold to what
she aspires, at what she aims, what she regards. It is that which fixes her in
your house; if you repel her, it is an abyss. Open your arms for her, respond
to her arms; call her, display to her your love.
Treat your dependents well, in so far as it
belongs to you to do so; and it belongs to those whom Ptah has favored. If any
one fails in treating his dependents well it is said: "He is a person . .
." As we do not know the events which may happen tomorrow, he is a wise
person by whom one is well treated. When there comes the necessity of showing
zeal, it will then be the dependents themselves who say: "Come on, come
on," if good treatment has not quitted the place; if it has quitted it,
the dependents are defaulters.
Do not repeat any extravagance of language; do
not listen to it; it is a thing which has escaped from a hasty mouth. If it is
repeated, look, without hearing it, toward the earth; say nothing in regard to
it. Cause him who speaks to you to know what is just, even him who provokes to
injustice; cause that which is just to be done, cause it to triumph. As for
that which is hateful according to the law, condemn it by unveiling it.
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