upon wickedness; and who can tell how much trouble he brought upon his family, who were always afraid of hearing of some new enormity?  At last they held a family council, and told the parents that matters had come to such a pass that if they did not disown their son the rest of the family must needs break off all communication with them:  if he were allowed to go on in his evil courses, the whole village, not to speak of his relations, would be disgraced; so either the parents, against whom, however, there was no ill-will felt, must be cut by the family, or they must disinherit their son:  to this appeal they begged to have a distinct answer.  The parents, reflecting that to separate themselves from their relations, even for the sake of their own son, would be an act of disrespect to their ancestors, determined to invite their relations to assemble and draw up a petition to the Government for leave to disinherit their son, to which petition the family would all affix their seals according to form; so they begged them to come in the evening, and bring their seals with them.  This was their answer.

There is an old saw which says, “The old cow licks her calf, and the tigress carries her cub in her mouth.”  If the instinct of beasts and birds prompt them to love their young, how much the more must it be a bitter thing for a man to have to disown his own son!  All this trouble was the consequence of this youth casting his heart from him.  Had he examined his own conscience, the storm of waves and of wind would not have arisen, and all would have been calm.  But as he refused to listen to his conscience, his parents, much against their will, were forced to visit him with the punishment of disinheritance, which he had brought upon himself.  A sad thing indeed!  In the poems of his Reverence Tokuhon, a modern poet, there is the following passage:  “Since Buddha thus winds himself round our hearts, let the man who dares to disregard him fear for his life.”  The allusion is to the great mercy and love of the gods.  The gods wish to make men examine their consciences, and, day and night, help men to discern that which is evil; but, although they point out our desires and pleasures, our lusts and passions, as things to be avoided, men turn their backs upon their own consciences.  The love of the gods is like the love of parents for their children, and men treat the gods as undutiful children treat their parents.  “Men who dare to disregard the gods, let them fear for their lives.”  I pray you who hear me, one and all, to examine your own consciences and be saved.

To return to the story of the vagabond son.  As it happened, that day he was gambling in a neighbouring village, when a friend from his own place came up and told him that his relations had met together to disinherit him; and that, fine fellow as he was, he would find it a terrible thing to be disowned.  Before he had heard him half out, the other replied in a loud voice—­