Observe!  Thou art among men like a bird of prey that liveth upon weak little birds.  Observe!  Thou art like the cook whose sole joy is to kill, whom no creature escapeth.  Observe!  Thou art like a shepherd who is careless about the loss of his sheep through the rapacious crocodile; thou never countest [thy sheep].  Would that thou wouldst make evil and rapacious men to be fewer!  Safety hath departed from [every] town throughout the land.  Thou shouldst hear, but most assuredly thou hearest not!  Why hast thou not heard that I have this day driven back the rapacious man?  When the crocodile pursueth....  How long is this condition of thine to last?  Truth which is concealed shall be found, and falsehood shall perish.  Do not imagine that thou art master of to-morrow, which hath not yet come, for the evils which it may bring with it are unknown.”

And behold, when this peasant had said these things to Rensi, the son of Meru, the steward, at the entrance to the hall of the palace, Rensi caused two men with leather whips to seize him, and they beat him in every member of his body.  Then this peasant said:  “The son of Meru hath made a mistake.  His face is blind in respect of what he seeth, he is deaf in respect of what he heareth, and he is forgetting that which he ought to remember.  Observe!  Thou art like unto a town that hath no governor, and a community that hath no chief, and a ship that hath no captain, and a body of men who have no guide.  Observe!  Thou art like a high official who is a thief, a governor of a town who taketh [bribes], and the overseer of a province who hath been appointed to suppress robbery, but who hath become the captain of those who practise it.”

And this peasant came a fourth time to lay his complaint before Rensi, and he met him as he was coming out from the door of the temple of the god Herushefit, and said, “O thou who art praised, the god Herushefit, from whose house thou comest forth, praiseth thee.  When well-doing perisheth, and there is none who seeketh to prevent its destruction, falsehood maketh itself seen boldly in the land.  If it happen that the ferry-boat is not brought for thee to cross the stream in, how wilt thou be able to cross the stream?  If thou hast to cross the stream in thy sandals, is thy crossing pleasant?  Assuredly it is not!  What man is there who continueth to sleep until it is broad daylight? [This habit] destroyeth the marching by night, and the travelling by day, and the possibility of a man profiting by his good luck, in very truth.  Observe!  One cannot tell thee sufficiently often that ’Compassion hath departed from thee.’  And behold, how the oppressed man whom thou hast destroyed complaineth!  Observe!  Thou art like unto a man of the chase who would satisfy his craving for bold deeds, who determineth to do what he wisheth, to spear the hippopotamus, to shoot the wild bull, to catch fish, and to catch birds in his nets.  He who is without hastiness will not speak without