V. 1. The Mihist, E Che, sought, through Seu Peih, to see Mencius. Mencius said, "I indeed wish to see him, but at present I am still unwell. When I am better, I will myself go and see him. E need not come here again."

2. Next day, E Che again sought to see Mencius. Mencius said,." To day I am able to see him. But if I do not correct his errors, the true principles will not be fully evident. Let me first correct him. I have heard that E is a Mihist. Now Mih considers that in the regulation of funeral matters a spare simplicity should be the rule. E thinks with Mih's doctrines to change the customs of the empire ;-how does he regard them as if they were wrong, and not honour them? Notwithstanding his views, E buried his parents in a sumptuous manner, and so he served them in the way which his doctrines discountenance."

3. The disciple Seu informed E of these remarks. E said, "Even according to the principles of the learned, we find that the ancients acted towards the people, 'as if they were watching over an infant.' What does this expression mean? To me it sounds that we are to love all without difference of degree; but the manifestation of love must begin with our parents." Seu reported this reply to Mencius, who said, "Now, does E really think that a man's affection for the child of his brother is merely like his affection for the infant of a neighbour? What is to be laid hold of in that expression is simply this:-that if an infant crawling about is about to fall into a well, it is no crime in the infant. Moreover, Heaven gives birth to creatures in such a way that they have one root, and E makes them to have two roots. This is the cause of his error.

4"And, in the most ancient times, there were some who did not inter their parents. When their parents died, they took them up and threw them into some

water-channel. Afterwards, when passing by them, they saw foxes and wild-cats devouring them, and flies and gnats biting at them. The perspiration started out upon their foreheads, and they looked away, unable to bear the sight. It was not on account of other people that this perspiration flowed. The emotions of their hearts affected their faces and eyes, and instantly they went home, and came back with baskets and spades and covered the bodies. If the covering them thus was indeed right, you may see that the filial son and virtuous man, in interring in a handsome manner their parents, act according to a proper rule."

5. The disciple Seu informed E of what Mencius had said. E was thoughtful for a short time, and then said, "He has instructed me."

BOOK III.

TANG WAN KUNG. PART II.

CHAPTER I. 1. Ch'in Tae said to Mencius, "In not going to wait upon any of the princes, you seem to me to be standing on a small point. If now you were once to wait upon them, the result might be so great that you would make one of them emperor, or, if smaller, that you would make one of them chief of all the other princes. Moreover, the History says, 'By bending only one cubit, you make eight cubits straight.' It appears to me like a thing which might be done."

2. Mencius said, "Formerly the duke King of Ts'e,

once when he was hunting, called his forester to him by a flag. The forester would not come, and the duke was going to kill him. With reference to this incident, Confucius said, The determined officer never forgets that his end may be in a ditch or stream; the brave officer never forgets that he may lose his head.' What was it in the forester that Confucius thus approved? He approved his not going to the duke, when summoned by the article which was not appropriate to him. If one go to see the princes without waiting to be invited, what can be thought of him?

3. "Moreover, that sentence, 'By bending only one cubit, you make eight cubits straight,' is spoken with reference to the gain that may be got. If gain be the object, then, if it can be got by bending eight cubits to make one cubit straight, may we likewise do that?

4. "Formerly, the officer Chaou Keen made Wang Leang act as charioteer for his favourite He, when, in the course of a whole day, they did not get a single bird. The favourite He reported this result, saying, 'He is the poorest charioteer in the world.' Some one told this to Wang Leang, who said, 'I beg leave to try again. By dint of pressing, this was accorded to him, when in one morning they got ten birds. The favourite, reporting this result, said, 'He is the best charioteer in the world.' Keen said, 'I will make him always drive your carriage for you.' When he told Wang Leang so, however, Leang refused, saying, 'I drove for him, strictly observing the proper rules for driving, and in the whole day he did not get one bird. I drove for him so as deceitfully to intercept the birds, and in one morning he got ten. It is said in the Book of Poetry, There is no failure in the management of their horses;

The arrows are discharged surely, like the blows
of an axe.

I am not accustomed to drive for a mean man. leave to decline the office.'

I beg

5. "Thus this charioteer even was ashamed to bend improperly to the will of such an archer. Though, by bending to it, they would have caught birds and animals enow to form a hill, he would not do so. If I were to bend my principles and follow those princes, of what kind would my conduct be? And you are wrong. Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight."

II. 1. King Ch'un said to Mencius, "Are not Kungsun Yen and Chang E really great men? Let them once be angry, and all the princes are afraid. Let them live quietly, and the flames of trouble are extinguished throughout the empire."

2. Mencius said, "How can such men be great men? Have you not read the Ritual Usages?—At the capping of a young man, his father admonishes him. Ất the marriage of a young woman, her mother admonishes her, accompanying her to the door on her leaving, and cautioning her with these words, You are going to your home. You must be respectful; you must be careful. Do not disobey your husband. Thus, to look upon compliance as their correct course is the rule for

women.

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3. 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 practise his principles for the good of the people; and when that desire is disappointed, to practise them alone; to be above the power of riches and honours to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend :-these characteristics constitute the great man."

III. I. Chow Seaou asked Mencius saying, "Did su

perior men of old time take office?" Mencius replied, "They did. The Record says, 'If Confucius was three months without being employed by some sovereign, he looked anxious and unhappy. When he passed from the boundary of a State, he was sure to carry with him his proper gift of introduction.' Kung-ming E said, 'Among the ancients, if an officer was three months unemployed by a sovereign, he was condoled with.""

2. Seaou said, "Did not this condoling, on being unemployed by a sovereign, show a too great urgency?" 3. Mencius answered, "The loss of his place to an officer is like the loss of his kingdom to a prince. It is said in the Book of Rites, 'A prince ploughs himself, and is assisted by the people, to supply the millet for sacrifice. His wife keeps silk-worms, and unwinds their cocoons, to make the garments for sacrifice. If the victims be not perfect, the millet not pure, and the dress not complete, he does not presume to sacrifice. 'And the scholar who, out of office, has no holy field, in the same way, does not sacrifice.' The victims for slaughter, the vessels, and the garments, not being all complete, he does not presume to sacrifice, and then neither may he dare to feel happy.' Is there not here sufficient ground also for condolence?"

4. Seaou again asked, "What was the meaning of Confucius' always carrying his proper gift of introduction with him, when he passed over the boundaries of the State where he had been?"

5. "An officer's being in office," was the reply, "is like the ploughing of a husbandman. Does a husbandman part with his plough, because he goes from one State to another?"

6. Seaou pursued, "The kingdom of Tsin is one, as well as others, of official employments, but I have not heard of any being thus earnest about being in office. If there should be this urgency about being in office,