“After dismissing the old counsellor, the king went into the women’s apartments, and began to talk to them of the exhortation which he had just received.  His observations were attentively listened to by one of his constant attendants, who determined, if possible, to turn the king’s thoughts in another direction, and prevent him from being influenced by the good advice which had been given.  This man had many accomplishments; he was skilled in dancing, music, and singing; quick at repartee; a good story-teller; full of fun and jokes; but devoid of honour and honesty; false, slanderous, a receiver of bribes, a bad man in every way; yet, from his wit and humour, very acceptable to the king, whom he now thus addressed:  ’Wherever there is a person of exalted position, there are always clever rogues ready to prey upon him, and, while degrading him, to accomplish their own base purposes.  Some, under the guise of religion, will tell him:  “The happiness of this world is shortlived and fleeting; eternal happiness can only be obtained by prayer and penance;” and so they persuade him to shave his head, wear a dress of skins, gird himself with a rope of sacred grass, and, renouncing all pleasures and luxuries, to betake himself to fasting and penance, and give away his riches to the poor, meaning, of course, themselves; some of these religious impostors will even persuade their dupes to renounce children, wife—­nay, even life itself.

“’But suppose a man to have too much sense to be deluded in this way, they will try a different plan; to one they will say:  “We can make gold; only furnish us with the means, and your riches shall be increased a thousandfold;” to another:  “We can show you how to destroy all your enemies without a weapon;” to another:  “Follow our advice, and, though you are nobody now, you shall soon become a great man.”

“’If their victim is a sovereign, they will say to him:  “Four branches of study are said to be proper for kings—­the vedas, the puranas, metaphysics, and political science;—­but the first three are of very little advantage; they may safely be neglected, and he should give up his mind to the last only.  Are there not the six thousand verses composed for the use of kings, and containing the whole science?  Learn these by heart, and you will be prepared for all emergencies.”  So then he must set to work to learn all these crabbed rules.  He must; according to them, distrust every one, even wife or son.  He must rise early, take a very scanty meal, and immediately proceed to business.

“’First he must go over accounts, and balance income and expenditure; and while his rascally ministers pretend to have everything very exact, they have forty thousand ways of cheating him, and take good care of themselves.

“’Then he must sit in public, and be tired to death with receiving frivolous complaints and petitions, and will not even have the satisfaction of doing justice; for, whether a cause be just or not, his ministers will take care that the decision shall be according to their own interests.