Without incumbering our pages with all the precepts of the Dhammapada, we will copy a few in detail to show the reader their style, and then we will only quote those which are most appropriate to our subject. The opening paragraphs singularly resemble those in Bacon's _Novum Organon_, and run thus--"All that we are, is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of him who draws the carriage (lv.)."
2. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him" (lvi. et. seq.).
3. "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me--hatred in those who harbour such thoughts will never cease."
4. "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me--hatred in those who do not harbour such thoughts will cease."
5. "For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time; hatred ceases by love"--this is an old rule.
* The figures refer to the separate precepts, which are given in numerical order.
** With this and the following saying we may compare the words of the Psalms--"Do not I hate those, O Lord, that hate thee? and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies" (Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22). The words of David, said to be a man after God's own heart, are equally opposed to the law of love, viz., "Thou hast given me the necks of my enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me" (2 Sam. xxii. 41; Ps. xviii. 40); I shall see my desire on them that hate me" (Ps. cxviii. 7). In Deuteronomy we find, moreover, that indulgence in hatred is attributed to the Almighty, "who repayeth them that hate Him to their face to destroy them: He (God) will not be slack to him that hateth Him, he will repay him to his face" (chap. vii. 10). Hatred of their enemies is, indeed, everywhere encouraged in the Jewish Scriptures, called sacred, and the Hebrew Jehovah is described as one with whom the power to hate and revenge Himself is a favourite luxury.