The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep, part 4/5
If you are a wise man, sitting in the council of
your lord, direct your thought toward that which is wise. Be silent rather than
scatter your words. When you speak, know that which can be brought against you.
To speak in the council is an art, and speech is criticized more than any other
labor; it is contradiction which puts it to the proof.
If you are powerful, respect knowledge and
calmness of language. Command only to direct; to be absolute is to run into
evil. Let not your heart be haughty, neither let it be mean. Do not let your
orders remain unsaid and cause your answers to penetrate; but speak without
heat, assume a serious countenance. As for the vivacity of an ardent heart,
temper it; the gentle man penetrates all obstacles. He who agitates himself all
the day long has not a good moment; and he who amuses himself all the day long
keeps not his fortune. Aim at fulness like pilots; once one is seated another
works, and seeks to obey one's orders.
Disturb not a great man; weaken not the
attention of him who is occupied. His care is to embrace his task, and he
strips his person through the love which he puts into it. That transports men
to Ptah, even the love for the work which they accomplish. Compose then your
face even in trouble, that peace may be with you, when agitation is with . .
.These are the people who succeed in what they desire.
Teach others to render homage to a great man. If
you gather the crop for him among men, cause it to return fully to its owner,
at whose hands is your subsistence. But the gift of affection is worth more
than the provisions with which your back is covered. For that which the great
man receives from you will enable your house to live, without speaking of the
maintenance you enjoy, which you desire to preserve; it is thereby that he
extends a beneficent hand, and that in your home good things are added to good
things. Let your love pass into the heart of those who love you; cause those
about you to be loving and obedient.
If you are a son of the guardians deputed to
watch over the public tranquillity, execute your commission without knowing its
meaning, and speak with firmness. Substitute not for that which the instructor
has said what you believe to be his intention; the great use words as it suits
them. Your part is to transmit rather than to comment upon.
If you are annoyed at a thing, if you are
tormented by someone who is acting within his right, get out of his sight, and
remember him no more when he has ceased to address you.
If you have become great after having been
little, if you have become rich after having been poor, when you are at the
head of the city, know how not to take advantage of the fact that you have
reached the first rank, harden not your heart because of your elevation; you
are become only the administrator, the prefect, of the provisions which belong
to Ptah. Put not behind you the neighbor who is like you; be unto him as a
companion.
Bend your back before your superior. You are
attached to the palace of the king; your house is established in its fortune,
and your profits are as is fitting. Yet a man is annoyed at having an authority
above himself, and passes the period of life in being vexed thereat. Although
that hurts not your . . . Do not plunder the house of your neighbors, seize not
by force the goods which are beside you. Exclaim not then against that which
you hear, and do not feel humiliated. It is necessary to reflect when one is
hindered by it that the pressure of authority is felt also by one's neighbor.
Do not make . . . you know that there are
obstacles to the water which comes to its hinder part, and that there is no
trickling of that which is in its bosom. Let it not . . . after having
corrupted his heart.
If you aim at polished manners, call not him
whom you accost. Converse with him especially in such a way as not to annoy
him. Enter on a discussion with him only after having left him time to saturate
his mind with the subject of the conversation. If he lets his ignorance display
itself, and if he gives you all opportunity to disgrace him, treat him with
courtesy rather; proceed not to drive him into a corner; do not . . . the word
to him; answer not in a crushing manner; crush him not; worry him not; in order
that in his turn he may not return to the subject, but depart to the profit of
your conversation.
Let your countenance be cheerful during the time
of your existence. When we see one departing from the storehouse who has
entered in order to bring his share of provision, with his face contracted, it
shows that his stomach is empty and that authority is offensive to him. Let not
that happen to you; it is . . .
Know those who are faithful to you when you are
in low estate. Your merit then is worth more than those who did you honor. His
. . ., behold that which a man possesses completely. That is of more importance
than his high rank; for this is a matter which passes from one to another. The
merit of one's son is advantageous to the father, and that which he really is,
is worth more than the remembrance of his father's rank.
Distinguish the superintendent who directs from
the workman, for manual labor is little elevated; the inaction of the hands is
honorable. If a man is not in the evil way, that which places him there is the
want of subordination to authority.
If you take a wife, do not . . . Let her be more
contented than any of her fellow-citizens. She will be attached to you doubly,
if her chain is pleasant. Do not repel her; grant that which pleases her; it is
to her contentment that she appreciates your work.
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