of Tang made his appearance in your school, it seemed proper that a polite consideration should be paid to him, and yet you did not answer him. Why was that?”

2. Mencius replied, "I do not answer him who ques tions me presuming on his nobility, nor him who presumes on his talents, nor him who presumes on his age, nor him who presumes on services performed to me, nor him who presumes on old acquaintance. Two of those things were chargeable on Kang of Tang."

XLIV. 1. Mencius said, "He who stops short where stopping is not allowable, will stop short in every thing He who behaves shabbily to those whom he ought to treat well, will behave shabbily to all.

2. "He who advances with precipitation will retire with speed."

XLV. Mencius said, "In regard to inferior creatures, the superior man is kind to them, but not loving. In regard to people generally, he is loving to them, but not affectionate. He is affectionate to his parents, and lovingly disposed to people generally. He is lovingly disposed to people generally, and kind to creatures."

XLVI. 1. Mencius said, "The wise embrace all knowledge, but they are most earnest about what is of the greatest importance. The benevolent embrace all in their love, but what they consider of the greatest importance is to cultivate an earnest affection for the virtuous. Even the wisdom of Yaou and Shun did not extend to everything, but they attended earnestly to what was important. Their benevolence did not show itself in acts of kindness to every man, but they earnestly cultivated an affection for the virtuous.

2. "Not to be able to keep the three years' mourning, and to be very particular about that of three months, or that of five months; to eat immoderately and swill down the soup, and at the same time to in quire about the precept not to tear the meat with the

teeth;-such things show what I call an ignorance of what is most important."

BOOK VII.

TSIN SIN. PART II.

CHAPTER I. 1. Mencius said, "The opposite indeed of benevolent was the king Hwuy of Leang! The benevolent, beginning with what they care for, proceed to what they do not care for. Those who are the opposite of benevolent, beginning with what they do not care for, proceed to what they care for."

2. Kung-sun Ch'ow said, "What do you mean?" Mencius answered, "The king Hwuy of Leang, for the matter of territory, tore and destroyed his people, leading them to battle. Sustaining a great defeat, he would engage again, and afraid lest they should not be able to secure the victory, urged his son whom he loved till he sacrificed him with them. This is what I call-beginning with what they do not care for, and proceeding to what they care for.""

II. 1. Mencius said, "In the "Spring and Autumn' there are no righteous wars. Instances indeed there are of one war better than another.

2. "Correction' is when the supreme authority punishes its subjects by force of arms. Hostile States do

not correct one another."

III. 1. Mencius said, "It would be better to be without the Book of History than to give entire credit to it.

2. "In the Completion of the War', I select two or three passages only, which I believe.

3. "The benevolent man has no enemy under heaven When the prince the most benevolent was engaged against him who was the most the opposite, how could the blood of the people have flowed till it floated the tles of the mortars?" a

pes.

IV. 1. Mencius said, "There are men who say-I am skilful at marshalling troops, I am skilful at conducting a battle!'-They are great criminals.

2. "If the sovereign of a state love benevolence, he will have no enemy in the empire.

3. "When Tang was executing his work of correction in the south, the rude tribes on the north murmured. When he was executing it in the east, the rude tribes on the west murmured. Their cry was—'Why does he make us last?'

4. "When king Woo punished Yin, he had only three hundred chariots of war, and three thousand life-guards. 5. "The king said, 'Do not fear. Let me give you repose. I am no enemy to the people! On this, they bowed their heads to the earth, like the horns of animals falling off.'

6. 666 Imperial correction' is but another word for rectifying. Each State wishing itself to be corrected, what need is there for fighting?"

V. Mencius said, "A carpenter or a carriage-maker may give a inan the circle and square, but cannot make him skilful in the use of them."

VI. Mencius said, "Shun's manner of eating his parched grain and herbs was as if he were to be doing so all his life. When he became emperor, and had the embroidered robes to wear, the lute to play, and the two daughters of Yaou to wait on him, he was as if those things belonged to him as a matter of course."

VII. Mencius said, "From this time forth I know

the heavy consequences of killing a man's near relations. When a man kills another's father, that other will kill his father; when a man kills another's elder brother, that other will kill his elder brother. So he does not himself indeed do the act, but there is only an interval between him and it."

VIII. 1. Mencius said, "Anciently, the establishment of the frontier-gates was to guard against violence. 2, "Now-a-days, it is to exercise violence."

IX. Mencius said, "If a man himself do not walk in the right path, it will not be walked in even by his wife and children. If he do not order men according to the right way, he will not be able to get the obedience of even his wife and children."

X. Mencius said, "A bad year cannot prove the cause of death to him, whose stores of gain are large; an age of corruption cannot confound him whose equipment of virtue is complete."

XI. Mencius said, "A man who loves fame may be able to decline a kingdom of a thousand chariots, but if he be not really the man to do such a thing, it will appear in his countenance, in the matter of a dish of rice or a platter of soup."

66

XII. 1. Mencius said, "If men of virtue and ability be not confided in, a State will become empty and void. 2. Without the rules of propriety and distinctions of right, the high and the low will be thrown into confusion.

3. "Without the great principles of government and their various business, there will not be wealth sufficient for the expenditure."

XIII. Mencius said, "There are instances of individuals without benevolence, who have got possession of a single State, but there has been no instance of the whole empire's being got possession of by one withont benevolence."

XIV. 1. Mencius said, "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.

2. "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.

3. "When a prince endangers the altars of the spirits of the land and grain, he is changed, and another appointed in his place.

4. "When the sacrificial victims have been perfect, the millet in its vessels all pure, and the sacrifices of fered at their proper seasons, if yet there ensue drought, or the waters overflow, the spirits of the land and grain are changed, and others appointed in their place."

XV. Mencius said, "A sage is the teacher of a hundred generations:-this is true of Pih-e and Hwuy of Lew-hea. Therefore when men now hear the character of Pih-e, the corrupt become pure, and the weak acquire determination. When they hear the character of Hwuy of Lew-hea, the mean become generous, and the niggardly become liberal. Those two made themselves distinguished a hundred generations ago, and after a hundred generations, those who hear of them, are all aroused in this manner. Could such effects be produced by them, if they had not been sages? And how much more did they affect those who were in contiguity with them, and were warmed by them!"

XVI. Mencius said, "Benevolence is the distinguishing characteristic of man. As embodied in man's con

duct, it is called the path of duty."

XVII. Mencius said, "When Confucius was leaving Loo, he said, 'I will set out by-and-by;'-this was the way for him to leave the State of his parents. When he was leaving Ts'e, he strained off with his hand the water in which his rice was being rinsed, took the rice,