(87) For the thin water seeketh for the valley, and is a humility of the life, which did not exalt itself, as the astringent and the bitter qualities, and the fire's quality, have done in those creatures the devils.

(2) "Yes," said the prince. "I am just about collecting the revenue of my fief, and will then lend you three hundred ounces of silver. Will that do?" At this Chuang Tzŭ flushed with anger and said, "Yesterday, as I was coming along, I heard a voice calling me. I looked round, and in the cart-rut I saw a stickleback. "'And what do you want, stickleback?' said I. "'I am a denizen of the eastern ocean,' replied the stickleback. 'Pray, Sir, a pint of water to save my life.' "'Yes,' said I. 'I am just going south to visit the princes of Wu and Yüeh. I will bring you some from the west river. Will that do?' "At this the stickleback flushed with anger and said, 'I am out of my element. I have nowhere to go. A pint of water would save me. But to talk to me like this,—you might as well put me in a dried-fish shop at once.'" Jên Kung Tzŭ got a huge hook on a big line, which he baited with fifty oxen. He squatted down at Kuei-chi, and cast into the eastern ocean. Every day he fished, but for a whole year he caught nothing. Then came a great fish which swallowed the bait, and dragging the huge hook dived down below. This way and that way it plunged about, erecting the dorsal fin. The white waves rolled mountain high. The great deep was shaken up. The noise was like that of so many devils, terrifying people for many miles around.

(103) Now the terror or the glance of the light riseth up in the astringent quality very gently and shivering, and trembleth, which now in the water is bitter, and the light drieth it, and makes it friendly and sweet.

(6) I know the names of the fishermen who are fishing. They are the worms, the ancestors of the blood drinkers, who pour their flow on my hands, when the great god the lord listens to the words in Heliopolis, in the night of the 15th of the month, in the temple of the moon

(34) As a fish taken from his watery home and thrown on dry ground, our thought trembles all over in order to escape the dominion of Mâra (the tempter).

(34) For the oil or unctuosity in the water is generated through meekness or welldoing, and that is the unctuosity, oil, unction, marrow or fatness wherein the light becomes shining. But if the unctuosity be burnt up, then the water is turned into a sour stink, and moreover becometh very dark.

(25) My son, do not swim in any water, and do not allow yourself to be defiled by strange kinds of knowledge. Certainly you know that the schemes of the Adversary are not few, and (that) the tricks which he has are varied? Especially has the noetic man been robbed of the intelligence of the snake. For it is fitting for you to be in agreement with the intelligence of (these) two: with the intelligence of the snake and with the innocence of the dove - lest he (the Adversary) come into you in the guise of a flatterer, as a true friend, saying, "I advise good things for you."

(56) The gods and the glorious ones look at its water from afar, they do not quench their thirst, and their heart is not set at rest, because they may not go near it

(15) Then Chuang Tzŭ went to see Hui Tzŭ, and said, "In the south there is a bird. It is a kind of phœnix. Do you know it? It started from the south sea to fly to the north sea. Except on the wu-t'ung tree, it would not alight. It would eat nothing but the fruit of the bamboo, drink nothing but the purest spring water. An owl which had got the rotten carcass of a rat, looked up as the phœnix flew by, and screeched. Are you not screeching at me over your kingdom of Liang?" Chuang Tzŭ and Hui Tzŭ had strolled on to the bridge over the Hao, when the former observed, "See how the minnows are darting about! That is the pleasure of fishes." "You not being a fish yourself," said Hui Tzŭ, "how can you possibly know in what consists the pleasure of fishes?" "And you not being I," retorted Chuang Tzŭ, "how can you know that I do not know?" "If I, not being you, cannot know what you know," urged Hui Tzŭ, "it follows that you, not being a fish, cannot know in what consists the pleasure of fishes." "Let us go back," said Chuang Tzŭ, "to your original question. You asked me how I knew in what consists the pleasure of fishes. Your very question shows that you knew I knew. I knew it from my own feelings on this bridge."

(1) The Heron came in all haste and at once began to speak about himself. ' My charming house is near the sea among the lagoons, where none hears my song. I am so inoffensive that no one complains of me. Sad and melancholy, I stand pensively on the salt sea's verge, my heart filled with longing for the water, for if there were none what would become of me! But since I am not one of those who dwell in the sea, I am like to die, my lips parched, on its shore. Though the waters boil and the waves break at my feet, I cannot swallow a single drop; yet if the ocean should lose even a little of its water my heart would burn with vexation. For a creature such as I my passion for the sea is enough. I have not the strength to go in quest of the Simurgh, so I ask to be excused. How could one like me, who seeks only a drop of water, possibly attain union with the Simurgh?'

Said the Hoopoe: 'O ignorant of the sea, don't you know that it is full of crocodiles and other dangerous creatures? Sometimes its water is bitter, sometimes salt; sometimes it is calm, sometimes boisterous; always changing, never stable; sometimes it flows, sometimes it ebbs. Many great ones have been swallowed up in its abyss. The diver in its depths holds his breath lest he should be thrown up like a straw. The sea is an element devoid of loyalty. Do not trust it or it will end by submerging you. It is resdess because of its love for its friend. Sometimes it rolls great billows, sometimes it roars. Since the sea cannot find what it desires, how will you find

there a resting place for your heart! The ocean is a rill which rises in the way that leads to its friend; why then should you remain here content, and not strive to see the face of the Simurgh?'

(61) There is a serpent belonging to it, who comes from the two wells at Elephantine, at the gate of the water. He goes with the water, and stops at the stream of Cher-āba, near the powers of the high flood; he sees his hour of the silent evening

(108) For it is written, And it was dark on the deep, and the spirit of God moved on the water. The deep signifieth the innermost birth or geniture; and the darkness signifieth the outermost corrupt birth or geniture, in which the wrath burned. The water signifieth the allaying or mitigation of the spirit.

(3) Thou fishest with the net on the river, the water of which thou drinkest; thou walkest on thy feet, and thou dost not walk headlong. Thou appearest on the surface of the earth, and thou doest not come forth from under solid ground, the strength which is in thee will not be shaken through the action of the god of thy domain

(144) Thou hast many examples thereof in this world, that if some creature or man look upon a thing, it perishes because of the poison or venom in the creature: On the other side again, some men, as also beasts and other creatures, can with their tone or words change or alter the malignity or evil of a thing, and bring it into a right form.

(25) There is also therein a raging, raving, stinging and burning, and that water is continually as a dying man, when body and soul are parting asunder, a most horrible anxiety, a woeful, painful birth or geniture.

(19) O thou who turnest backwards, mighty of heart, who fishes and entangles him who enters the earth; O you fishers, sons of their fathers, and ye fowlers who are in Nefer-sent; you will not catch me in your nets, and you will not entangle me in your meshes, wherein you catch the disabled, and where you catch those who are in the earth; for I know it (the net), its frame above, and its weights below. Behold, I come, my stake is in my hand; the point is in my hand, the blade is in my hand

(75) And there rose up the shining light in the heat in the water, or in the fat or oiliness of the water, and the heart of the water kindled itself, and this was done in the twinkling of an eye.

(29) Every Beast has a Mind, having a Will, and the five Senses therein, so that it can distinguish therein what is good or ill for it. But where remain the Senses in the Will [that come] out of the Gates of the Deep, where the Will discovers itself [or glimmers] in the first Principle in infinitum, [infinitely,] Animal or living Creature. mOf. out of which the Understanding proceeds, so that Man can see into all Things into their Essences, how high they are graduated, whereupon follows the Distinction [or different Articulation] of the Tongue? For if a Beast had them, then it could also speak, and distinguish Voices, and speak of the Things that are in Substance [or Being,] and search into the Originality. But because it is not out of the Eternal, therefore it has no Understanding in the Light of Nature, be it never so nimble and crafty; neither does its Strength and Force avail to the lifting it up into Understanding; no, it is all in vain.

(21) But the living Creatures, as Men, Beasts, and Fowls, have the Tincture in them, for in the Beginning they were an Extraction [taken] from the quality of the Stars and Elements by the Fiat. And in the Tincture [there] stands the continual kindling Fire, which continually draws the Virtue or Oleum [the Oil] out of the Water; from whence comes the Blood, in which the noble Life P stands.

(26) The water also has a fierce deadly spring, for it killeth and consumeth; and so all things that have a life and being must rot and perish in the water.