“Therefore, men have that which they like more than life, and that which they dislike more than death. They are not men of distinguished talents and virtue only who have this mental nature. All men have it; what belongs to such men is simply that they do not lose it.

"Here are a small basket of rice and a platter of soup, and the case is one in which the getting them will preserve life, and the want of them will be death: if they are offered with an insulting voice, even a tramper will not receive them, or if you first tread upon them, even a beggar will not stoop to take them.

"Here is a man whose fourth finger is bent and cannot be stretched out straight. It is not painful, nor does it incommode his business, and yet if there be any one who can make it straight, he will not think the way from Ts'in to Ts'oo far to go to him; because his finger is not like the finger of other people.

"When a man's finger is not like those of other people, he knows to feel dissatisfied ; but if his mind be not like that of other people, he does not know to feel dissatisfaction. This is called 'Ignorance of the relative importance of things.

"There is no part of himself which a man does not love, and as he loves all, so he must nourish all. There is not an inch of skin which he does not love, and so there is not an inch of skin which he will not nourish. For examining whether his way of nourishing be good or not, what other rule is there but this, that he determine by reflecting on himself where it should be applied?

"Some parts of the body are noble, and some are ignoble; some great, and some small. The great must not be injured for the small, nor the noble for the igno

ble. He who nourishes the little belonging to him is a little man, and he who nourishes the great is a great

man.

"He who nourishes one of his fingers, neglecting his shoulders or his back, without knowing that he is doing so, is a man who resembles a hurried wolf.

"A man who only eats and drinks is counted mean by others because he nourishes what is little to the neglect of what is great.

"If a man, fond of his eating and drinking, were not to neglect what is of more importance, how should his mouth and belly be considered as no more than an inch of skin?"*

Shun-yu K'wăn said, "Is it the rule that males and females shall not allow their hands to touch in giving or receiving anything?" Mencius replied, "It is the rule." K'wun asked, "If a man's sister-in-law be drowning, shall he rescue her with his hands?" Mencius said, "He who would not so rescue a drowning woman is a wolf. For males and females not to allow their hands to touch in giving and receiving is the general rule; when a sister-in-law is drowning, to rescue her with the hand is a peculiar exigency."

K’wăn said, “The whole empire is drowning. How strange it is that you will not rescue it!"

Mencius answered, "A drowning empire must be res

* Our philosopher talks well, but how far below the Teacher of Galilee when he spake of the life more than meat, and when he asked, "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" One had in view only the life which now is; the other, that life which lasts while the eternal years of God endure.

cued with right principles, as a drowning sister-in-law has to be rescued with the hand. Do you wish me to rescue the empire with my hand?”

THE GOLDEN RULE.

SELFISHNESS UNPROFITABLE.

HE

THAT WOULD HAVE FRIENDS MUST SHOW HIMSELF FRIENDLY.

Mencius said, "If a man love others, and no responsive attachment is shown to him, let him turn inwards and examine his own benevolence. If he is trying to rule others, and his government is unsuccessful, let him turn inwards and examine his wisdom. If he treats others politely, and they do not return his politeness, let him turn inward and examine his own feeling of respect.

"When we do not, by what we do, realize what we desire, we must turn inwards, and examine ourselves in every point. When a man's person is correct, the whole empire will turn to him with recognition and submission. It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'Be always studious to be in harmony with the ordinances of God, and you will obtain much happiness.'

66

Mencius said to the king Seuen, of Ts'e, "When the prince regards his ministers as his hands and feet, his ministers regard their prince as their belly and heart; when he regards them as his dogs and horses, they regard him as any other man; when he regards them as

* With what measure a man meets, it will be measured to him again; and consequently, before a man deals with others, expecting them to be affected by him, he should first deal with himself.

the ground or as grass, they regard him as a robber and

an enemy.

"That whereby the superior man is distinguished from other men is what he preserves in his heart; namely, benevolence and propriety.

"The benevolent man loves others. The man of propriety shows respect to others.

"He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them. "Here is a man, who treats me in a perverse and unreasonable manner. The superior man in such a case will turn round upon himself—' I must have been wanting in benevolence; I must have been wanting in propriety how should this have happened to me?'

"He examines himself, and is specially benevolent. He turns round upon himself, and is specially observant of propriety. The perversity and unreasonableness of the other, however, are still the same. The superior man will again turn round on himself 'I must have been failing to do my utmost.'

"If one acts with a vigorous effort at the law of reciprocity, when he seeks for the realization of perfect virtue, nothing can be closer than his approximation to it.

"The principle of the philosopher Yang was—' Each one for himself.' Though he might have benefited the whole empire by plucking out a single hair, he would not have done it.

"The philosopher Mih loves all equally. If by rubbing smooth his whole body from the crown to the heel, he could have benefited the empire, he would have done it."

CHAPTER III.

IDEAL OF THE PERFECT MAN.

THE SUPERIOR MAN.

Mencius said, "The superior man makes his advances in what he is learning with deep earnestness and by the proper course, wishing to get hold of it as in himself. Having got hold of it in himself, he abides in it calmly and firmly. Abiding in it calmly and firmly, he reposes a deep reliance on it. Reposing a deep reliance on it, he seizes it on the left and right, meeting everywhere with it as a fountain from which things flow. It is on this account that the superior man wishes to get hold of what he is learning as in himself.”*

To dwell in the wide house of the world, to stand in the correct seat of the world, and to walk in the great path of the world; when he obtains his desire for office, to practice his principles for the good of the people; and

* Understand the subject studied to be man's own self; something belonging to his own nature.