Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/120
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THE PROLOGUE.
which euer desireth that that is profitable, but follow alwayes in deede things that are hurtfull, A man of such life and gouernement we may compare to him that knoweth good meates light of digestion, and the grosse ill and heauie: get ouercome with desire taketh that that is most hurtfull, and so being hurt, him selfe alone is the cause of all his yll.
Even ſuch a man is he whome affection ſuldueth. He vnderſtandeth and is learned, and able to diſcerne troth from falſehoode, and yet will not put in proofe the true profit, nor once fellow and diſire knowledge and wiſedome. We might bring this man in the example of him that hauing his light good and perfite, ſhutting his eyes would needes le ledde by a blinde man, ſo that both they falling into a diche were drowned, and miſerably died. Every man will condeme him for a foole, and worſe than mad, that hauing his ſight good and without blemiſhe, that might haue ſeene the daunger and ſcaped it, and of mere fooliſhneſſe would not. Therefore euerie wiſe and diſcrete perſon muſt continually labour to reade, and to vnderſtande that he readeth, and muſt then teache it to as many as deſire to knowe it, and to doe the good workes of the knowledge he teacheth, that