Virtue

Poem : 111

If justice, failing not, its quality maintain,
Giving to each his due, -'tis man's one highest gain.

Explanation :
That equity which consists in acting with equal regard to each of (the three) divisions of men [enemies, strangers and friends] is a pre-eminent virtue.

Poem : 112

The just man's wealth unwasting shall endure,
And to his race a lasting joy ensure.

Explanation :
The wealth of the man of rectitude will not perish, but will bring happiness also to his posterity.

Poem : 113

Though only good it seem to give, yet gain
By wrong acquired, not e'en one day retain!

Explanation :
Forsake in the very moment (of acquisition) that gain which, though it should bring advantage, is without equity.

Poem : 114

Who just or unjust lived shall soon appear:
By each one's offspring shall the truth be clear.

Explanation :
The worthy and unworthy may be known by the existence or otherwise of good offsprings.

Poem : 115

The gain and loss in life are not mere accident;
Just mind inflexible is sages' ornament.

Explanation :
Loss and gain come not without cause; it is the ornament of the wise to preserve evenness of mind (under both).

Poem : 116

If, right deserting, heart to evil turn,
Let man impending ruin's sign discern!

Explanation :
Let him whose mind departing from equity commits sin well consider thus within himself, "I shall perish."

Poem : 117

The man who justly lives, tenacious of the right,
In low estate is never low to wise man's sight.

Explanation :
The great will not regard as poverty the low estate of that man who dwells in the virtue of equity.

Poem : 118

To stand, like balance-rod that level hangs and rightly weighs,
With calm unbiassed equity of soul, is sages' praise.

Explanation :
To incline to neither side, but to rest impartial as the even-fixed scale is the ornament of the wise.

Poem : 119

Inflexibility in word is righteousness,
If men inflexibility of soul possess.

Explanation :
Freedom from obliquity of speech is rectitude, if there be (corresponding) freedom from bias of mind.

Poem : 120

As thriving trader is the trader known,
Who guards another's interests as his own.

Explanation :
The true merchandize of merchants is to guard and do by the things of others as they do by their own.