your Majesty's not exercising the Imperial sway, is not such a case as that of taking the T'ae mountain under your arm, and leaping over the north sea with it. Your Majesty's not exercising the Imperial sway is a case like that of breaking off a branch from a tree.

12. "Treat with the reverence due to age the elders in your own family, so that the elders in the families of others shall be similarly treated; treat with the kindness due to youth the young in your own family, so that the young in the families of others shall be similarly treated:—do this, and the empire may be made to go round in your palm. It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'His example affected his wife. It reached to his brothers, and his family of the State was governed by it.—The language shows how king Wan simply took this kindly heart, and exercised it towards those parties. Therefore the carrying out his kindly heart by a prince will suffice for the love and protection of all within the four seas, and if he do not carry it out, he will not be able to protect his wife and children. The way in which the ancients came greatly to surpass other men, was no other than this:-simply that they knew well how to carry out, so as to affect others, what they themselves did. Now your kindness is sufficient to reach to animals, and no benefits are extended from it to reach the people. How is this? Is an exception to be made here ?

13. "By weighing, we know what things are light, and what heavy. By measuring, we know what things are long, and what short. The relations of all things may be thus determined, and it is of the greatest importance to estimate the motions of the mind. I beg your Majesty to measure it.

14. "You collect your equipments of war, endanger your soldiers and officers, and excite the resentment of the other princes;-do these things cause you pleasure in your mind?"

15. The king replied "No. How should I derive pleasure from these things? My object in them is to seek for what I greatly desire."

16. Mencius said, "May I hear from you what it is that you greatly desire? The king laughed and did not speak. Mencius resumed, " Are you led to desire it, be cause you have not enough of rich and sweet food for your mouth? Or because you have not enough of light and warm clothing for your body? Or because you have not enow of beautifully coloured objects to delight your eyes? Or because you have not voices and tones enow to please your ears? Or because you have not enow of attendants and favourites to stand before you and receive your orders? Your Majesty's various officers are sufficient to supply you with those things. How can your Majesty be led to entertain such a desire on account of them?" "No," said the king; "my desire is not on account of them?" Mencius added, " Then, what your Majesty greatly desires may be known. You wish to enlarge your territories, to have Ts'in and Ts'oo wait at your court, to rule the Middle kingdom, and to attract to you the barbarous tribes that surround it. But to do what you do to seek for what you desire, is like climbing a tree to seek for fish."

17. The king said, "Is it so bad as that?" "It is even worse," was the reply. "If you climb a tree to seek for fish, although you do not get the fish, you will not suf fer any subsequent calamity. But if you do what you do to seek for what you desire, doing it moreover with all your heart, you will assuredly afterwards meet with calamities." The king asked, "May I hear from you the proof of that?" Mencius said, "If the people of Tsow should fight with the people of Ts'oo, which of them does your Majesty think would conquer?" "The people of Ts'oo would conquer." "Yes;-and so it is certain that a small country cannot contend with a great,

that few cannot contend with many, that the weak cannot contend with the strong. The territory within the four seas embraces nine divisions, each of a thousand le square. All Ts'e together is but one of them. If with one part you try to subdue the other eight, what is the difference between that and Tsow's contending with Ts'oo? For, with the desire which you have, you must likewise turn back to the radical course for its attainment.

18. "Now if your Majesty will institute a government whose action shall all be benevolent, this will cause all the officers in the empire to wish to stand in your Majesty's court, and the farmers all to wish to plough in your Majesty's fields, and the merchants, both travelling and stationary, all to wish to store their goods in your Majesty's market places, and travelling strangers all to wish to make their tours on your Majesty's roads, and all throughout the empire who feel aggrieved by their rulers to wish to come and complain to your Majesty. And when they are so bent, who will be able to keep them back?"

19. The king said, "I am stupid, and not able to ad-` vance to this. I wish you, my Master, to assist my intentions. Teach me clearly; although I am deficient in intelligence and vigour, I will essay and try to carry your instructions into effect."

20. Mencius replied, "They are only men of education, who, without a certain livelihood, are able to maintain a fixed heart. As to the people, if they have not a certain livelihood, it follows that .they will not have a fixed heart. And if they have not a fixed heart, there is nothing which they will not do, in the way of self-abandonment, of moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license. When they thus have been involved in crime, to follow them up and punish them;--this is to entrap the people. How can such a thing as entrap

ping the people be done under the rule of a benevolent man?"

21. "Therefore an intelligent ruler wili regulate the livelihood of the people, so as to make sure that, above, they shall have sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, below, sufficient wherewith to support their wives and children; that in good years they shall always be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall escape the danger of perishing. After this he may urge them, and they will proceed to what is good, for in this case the people will follow after that with ease.

22. "Now, the livelihood of the people is so regulated, that, above, they have not sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, below, they have not sufficient wherewith to support their wives and children. Notwithstanding good years, their lives are continually embittered, and, in bad years, they do not escape perishing. In such circumstances they only try to save themselves from death, and are afraid they will not succeed. What leisure have they to cultivate propriety and righteous

ness?

23. "If your Majesty wishes to effect this regulation of the livelihood of the people, why not turn to that which is the essential step to it?

24. "Let mulberry-trees be planted about the homesteads with their five mow, and persons of fifty years may be clothed with silk. In keeping fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be neglected, and persons of seventy years may eat flesh. Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of the farm with its hundred mow, and the family of eight mouths that is supported by it shall not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be paid to education in schools,--the inculcation in it especially of the filial and fraternal duties, and gray-haired men' will

not be seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on thei backs or on their heads. It never has been that the ruler of a State where such results were seen,-the old wearing silk and eating flesh, and the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not attain to the Imperial dignity."

BOOK I.

KING HWUY OF LEANG. PART II.

CHAPTER I. 1. Chwang Paou, seeing Mencius, said to him, “I had an audience of the king. His Majesty told me that he loved music, and I was not prepared

with anything to reply to him. What do you pronounce about that love of music?" Mencius replied, "If the king's love of music were very great, the kingdom of Ts'e would be near to a state of good govern

ment."

2. Another day, Mencius, having an audience of the king, said, "Your Majesty, I have heard, told the officer Chwang, that you love music; was it so?" The king changed colour, and said, "I am unable to love the music of the ancient sovereigns; I only love the music that suits the manners of the present age."

3. Mencius said, "If your Majesty's love of music were very great, Ts'e would be near to a state of good government! The music of the present day is just like the music of antiquity, in regard to effecting that." 4. The king said, "May I hear from you the proof of