The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.83

c23.83

Asoka was a hard-working king, as unwearied in business as Philip II of Spain, ready to receive reports ‘at any hour and any place’, and yet dissatisfied with the outcome of his industry. ‘I am never,’ he laments, ‘fully satisfied with my exertions and dispatch of business.’ Probably he worked too hard, and would have effected still more if he had done less. His ideal of duty was high, and, like the Stoic philosopher, he was bound to obey the law of his nature, and to toil on, be the result success or failure.