pride the merit of
devotion is lost; by insulting priests life is diminished; and by
proclaiming a largess its fruit is destroyed.

"For in his passage to the next world, neither his father, nor his
mother, nor his wife, nor his son, nor his kinsmen will remain his
company; his virtue alone will adhere to him.

"Single is each man born; single he dies; single he receives the reward
of his good, and single the punishment of his evil deeds."

From Book V., "On Diet":--

"The twice-born man who has intentionally eaten a mushroom, the flesh
of a tame hog, or a town cock, a leek, or an onion, or garlic, is
degraded immediately.

"But having undesignedly tasted either of those six things, he must
perform the penance santapana, or the chandrayana, which anchorites
practise; for other things he must fast a whole day.

"One of those harsh penances called prajapatya the twice-born man must
perform annually, to purify him from the unknown taint of illicit food;
but he must do particular penance for such food intentionally eaten.

"He who injures no animated creature shall attain without hardship
whatever he thinks of, whatever he strives for, whatever he fixes his
mind on.

"Flesh meat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the
slaughter of animals obstructs the path to beatitude; from flesh meat,
therefore, let man abstain.

"Attentively considering the formation of bodies, and the death or
confinement of embodied spirits, let him abstain from eating flesh meat
of any kind.

"Not a mortal exists more sinful than he who, without an oblation to
the manes or the gods, desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh
of another creature.

"By subsisting on pure fruit and on roots, and by eating such grains as
are eaten by hermits, a man reaps not so high a reward as by carefully
abstaining from animal food.

"In lawfully tasting meat, in drinking fermented liquor, in caressing
women, there is no turpitude; for to such enjoyments men are naturally
prone, but a virtuous abstinence from them produces a signal
compensation.

"Sacred learning, austere devotion, fire, holy aliment, earth, the
mind, water, smearing with cow-dung, air, prescribed acts of religion,
the sun, and time are purifiers of embodied spirits.

"But of all pure things purity in acquiring wealth is pronounced the
most excell