For I was a son unto my father,

Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

And he taught me,

And said unto me:

Let thine heart retain my words;

Keep my commandments, and live:
Get wisdom,

Get understanding;

Forget it not,

Neither decline from the words of my mouth:
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee;
Love her, and she shall keep thee.

Wisdom is the principal thing;

Get wisdom:

Yea, with all thou hast gotten

Get understanding.

Exalt her, and she shall promote thee:

She shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace

her.

She shall give to thine head a chaplet of grace:

A crown of beauty shall she deliver to thee.

X

The Two Paths

A Sonnet

Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings;
And the years of thy life shall be many.
I have taught thee in the way of wisdom;
I have led thee in paths of uprightness.

When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened;
And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Take fast hold of instruction;

Let her not go:

Keep her;

For she is thy life.

Enter not into the path of the wicked,

And walk not in the way of evil men.

Avoid it,

Pass not by it;

Turn from it,

And pass on.

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief;

And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to

fall.

For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the righteous is as the light of dawn,
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness:
They know not at what they stumble.

xi

Wisdom and Health

A Sonnet

My son, attend to my words;
Incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from thine eyes ;
Keep them in the midst of thine heart.

For they are life unto those that find them,
And health to all their flesh.

Keep thy Heart above all that thou guardest,
For out of it are the issues of life.

Put away from thee a froward Mouth,
And perverse lips put far from thee.

Let thine Eyes look right on,

And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Make level the path of thy Feet,

And let all thy ways be established.

Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:

Remove thy foot from evil.

xii

The Strange Woman

A Sonnet

My son, attend unto my wisdom;

Incline thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest preserve discretion,

And that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of a Strange Woman drop honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil:

But her latter end is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death;

Her steps take hold on Sheol;

So that she findeth not the level path of life:
Her ways are unstable and she knoweth it not.

mouth.

Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,
And depart not from the words of my
Remove thy way far from her,

And come not nigh the door of her house:
Lest thou give thine honour unto others,
And thy years unto the cruel :

Lest strangers be filled with thy strength;
And thy labours be in the house of an alien;
And thou mourn at thy latter end,

When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
And say, "How have I hated instruction,
And my heart despised reproof;

Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
I was well nigh in all evil

In the midst of the congregation and assembly."

Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
And running waters out of thine own well.
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad,
And rivers of water in the streets?
Let them be for thyself alone,
And not for strangers with thee.
Let thy fountain be blessed;

And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.