Kung-sun Ch'ow said, "Lofty are your principles and admirable, but to learn them may well be likened to ascending the heavens-something which cannot be reached. Why not adapt your teaching so as to cause learners to consider them attainable, and so daily exert themselves."

Mencius said, " A great artificer does not, for the sake of a stupid workman, alter or do away with the marking line. E did not, for the sake of a stupid archer, change his rule for drawing the bow.

"The superior man draws the bow, but does not discharge the arrow. The whole thing seems to leap before the learner. Such is his standing exactly in the middle of the right path. Those who are able, follow him.

"A carpenter or a carriage-maker may give a man the circle and square, but cannot make him skillful in the use of them."

Mencius said, "Is the arrow-maker less benevolent than the maker of armor of defense? And yet, the arrow-maker's only fear is lest men shall not be hurt, and the armor-maker's only fear is lest men should be hurt. So it is with the priest and the coffin-maker. The choice of a profession, therefore, is a thing in which great caution is required.".

DILIGENCE AND FIDELITY THE WAY TO PREFERMENT.

Mencius said, "When those occupying inferior situations do not obtain the confidence of the sovereign, they cannot succeed in governing the people. There is a way to obtain the confidence of the sovereign: if one is not trusted by his friends, he will not obtain the confidence

of his sovereign. There is a way of being trusted by one's friends: if one do not serve his parents so as to make them pleased, he will not be trusted by his friends. There is a way to make one's parents pleased: if one, on turning his thoughts inward, finds a want of sincerity, he will not give pleasure to his parents. There is a way to the attainment of sincerity in one's self: if a man do not understand what is good, he will not attain sincerity in himself.

"Therefore, sincerity is the way of heaven. To think how to be sincere is the way of man.

"Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity, who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others.

"Confucius was once keeper of stores, and he then said, 'My calculations must all be right. That is all I have to care about.' He was once in charge of the public fields, and he then said, 'The oxen and sheep must be fat, and strong, and superior. That is all I have to care about.'*

"When one is in a low situation, to speak of high matters is a crime. When a scholar stands in a prince's court, and his principles are not carried into practice, it is a shame to him."

try,

Kung-sun Ch'ow said, "It is said, in the Book of Poe

"He will not eat the bread of idleness!'

“How is it that we see superior men eating without

* Be content with your condition, and perform well the duties belonging to it. Be faithful in a few things, and you may be made ruler over many things.

laboring?" Mencius replied, "When a superior man resides in a country, if its sovereign employ his counsels, he comes to tranquillity, wealth, honor, and glory. If the young in it follow his instructions, they become filial, obedient to their elders, true-hearted, and faithful. What greater example can there be than this of not eating the bread of idleness?

"The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.

"Therefore, to gain the peasantry is the way to beCome emperor ; to gain the emperor is the way to become a prince of a State; to gain the prince of a State is the way to become a great officer."

TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS PREPARE FOR GREAT SERVICES.

Mencius said, " Shun rose from among the channeled fields. Foo Yue was called to office from the midst of his building frames; Kaou-Kih from his fish and salt; Kwan E-woo from the hands of his gaoler; Sun-shuh Gaou from his hiding by the seashore; and Pih-le He from the market-place.

"Thus, when heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

"Men for the most part err, and are afterwards able

to reform. They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts, and then they arise to vigorous reformation. When things have been evidenced in men's looks, and set forth in their words, then they understand them.

"If a prince have not about his court families attached to the laws and worthy counselors, and if abroad there are not hostile States or other external calamities, his kingdom will generally come to ruin.

"From these things we see how life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.”

UNMERITED FAME NOT LASTING.

The disciple Seu said, "Chung-ne often praised water, saying, 'O water! O water!' What did he find in water to praise?"

Mencius replied, "There is a spring of water; how it gushes out! It rests not day nor night. It fills up every hole, and then advances, flowing on to the four seas. Such is water having a spring! It was this which he found in it to praise.

"But suppose that the water has no spring. In the seventh and eighth months, when the rain falls abundantly, the channels in the fields are all filled, but their being dried up again may be expected in a short time. So a superior man is ashamed of a reputation beyond his merits."

A man of Ts'e had a wife and a concubine, and lived together with them in his house. When their husband went out, he would get himself well filled with wine and flesh, and then returned, and on his wife's asking him

with whom he ate and drank, they were sure to be all wealthy and honorable people. The wife informed the concubine, saying, "When our good man goes out, he is sure to come back having partaken plentifully of wine and flesh. I asked with whom he ate and drank, and they are all, it seems, wealthy and honorable people, and yet no people of distinction ever come here. I will spy out where our good man goes." Accordingly, she got up early in the morning, and privately followed wherever her husband went. Throughout the whole city there was no one who stood or talked with him. At last he came to those who were sacrificing among the tombs, beyond the outer wall, on the east, and begged what they had over. Not being satisfied, he looked about, and went to another party: and this was the way in which he got himself satiated. His wife returned, and informed the concubine, saying, “It was to our hus. band that we looked up in hopeful contemplation, with whom our lot is cast for life; and now these are his ways!" On this, along with the concubine, she reviled their husband, and they wept together in the middle hall. In the meantime, the husband, knowing nothing of all this, came in with a jaunty air, carrying himself proudly to his wife and concubine.

In the view of a superior man, as to the ways by which men seek for riches, honors, gain, and advancement, there are few of their wives and concubines who would not be ashamed and weep together on account of them.