"But once he ate too much, forgot the mean,
He fell; and afterward was no more seen.

"So be not greedy; modest be in all.
To spare is safe; greed goeth before a fall ."

When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths (at the conclusion of which many persons entered the First Path, or the Second, or Third, or Fourth), and identified the Birth: "At that time, the brother who has over-eaten was the young Parrot, and the king of the Parrots was I myself."

Footnotes

^204:1 The Scholiast adds the following lines:

"Be moderate in eating wet or dry,
And this thy hunger's need will satisfy.
Who eats with care, whose belly is not great,
Will be a holy hermit soon or late.
[291] Four or five mouthfuls,--then a drink is right;
Enough for any earnest eremite.
A careful moderate eater has small pain,
Slowly grows old, lives twice as long again."

And these:

"When sons bring meat to fathers in the wood,
Like ointment to the eye, 'tis very good.
Thus for bare life, with weariness forspent,
He nourished him upon such nourishment."

[j256]