XII. 1. Yew the philosopher said, " In practising the rules of propriety, a natural ease is to be prized. In the ways prescribed by the ancient kings, this is the excellent quality; and in things small and great we should thus follow those rules.

2. "Yet it is not to be observed in all cases. If one, knowing how such ease should be prized, manifests it, without regulating it by the rules of propriety, this likewise is not to be done."

XIII. Yew the philosopher said, "When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good. When respect is shown according to what is proper, one keeps far from shame and disgrace. When the parties upon whom a man leans are proper persons to be intimate with, he can make them his guides and masters."

XIV. The Master said, "He who aims to be a man of complete virtue, in his food does not seek to gratify his appetite, nor in his dwelling-place does he seek the appliances of ease: he is earnest in what he is doing, and careful in his speech; he frequents the company of men of principle that he may be rectified :—such a person may said indeed to love to learn."

be

XV. 1. Tsze-kung said, "What do you pronounce concerning the poor man who yet does not flatter, and the rich man who is not proud?" The Master replied, "They will do; but they are not equal to him, who, though poor, is yet cheerful, and to him, who, though rich, loves the rules of propriety."

father had not been very bad. An old interpretation, that the three years are to be understood of the three years of mourning for the father, is now rightly rejected.

12. IN CEREMONIES A NATURAL EASE IS TO BE PRIZED, AND YET TO BE SUBORDINATE TO THE END OF CEREMONIES, THE REVERENTIAL OBSERVANCE OF PROPRIETY. The term here rendered "rules of propriety," is not easily rendered in another language. There underlies it the idea of what is proper. It is "the fitness of things," what reason calls for in the performance of duties towards superior beings, and between man and man. Our term "ceremonies" would come near its meaning here. 13. TO SAVE FROM FUTURE REPENTANCE, WE MUST BE CAREFUL IN OUR FIRST STEPS.

14. WITH WHAT MIND ONE AIMING TO BE A KEUN-TSZE PURSUES HIS LEARNING.

15. AN ILLUSTRATION

OF THE SUCCESSIVE STEPS IN SELF-CULTI

2. Tsze-kung replied, "It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'As you cut and then file, as you carve and then polish.' -The meaning is the same, I apprehend, as that which you have just expressed."

3. The Master said, "With one like Tsze, I can begin · to talk about the Odes. I told him one point, and he knew its proper sequence.'

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XVI. The Master said, "I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men."

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I. The Master said, "He who exercises government by means of his virtue, may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it."

II. The Master said, "In the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the design of them all may be embraced in that one sentence 'Have no depraved thoughts.'

VATION. 1. Tsze-kung had been poor, and then did not cringe. He became rich, and was not proud. He asked Confucius about the style of character to which he had attained. Confucius allowed its worth, but sent him to higher attainments. 2. The ode quoted is the first of the songs of Wei, praising the prince Woo, who had dealt with himself as an ivoryworker who first cuts the bone, and then files it smooth; or a lapidary whose hammer and chisel are followed by all the appliances for smoothing and polishing. See the She-king, Pt I. Bk v. i. 2.

16. PERSONAL ATTAINMENT SHOULD BE OUR CHIEF AIM. HEADING AND SUBJECTS OF THIS BOOK. This second book contains twenty-four chapters, and is named "The practice of government." That is the object to which learning, treated of in the last book, should lead; and here we have the qualities which constitute, and the character of the men who administer, good government.

1. THE INFLUENCE OF VIRTUE IN A RULER. Choo He's view of the comparison is that it sets forth the illimitable influence which virtue in a ruler exercises without his using any effort. This is extravagant. His opponents say that virtue is the polar star, and the various departments of government the other stars. This is far-fetched. We must be content to accept the vague utterance without minutely determining its meaning. 2. THE PURE DESIGN OF THE BOOK OF POETRY. The number of compositions in the She-king is rather more than the round number here given. "Have no depraved thoughts,"'-see the She-king, IV. ii. 1. st. 4.

III. 1. The Master said, "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame.

2. "If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good." IV. 1. The Master said, "At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning.

2. "At thirty, I stood firm.

3. "At forty, I had no doubts.

4. "At fifty, I knew the decrees of heaven.

5. "At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth.

6. "At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right."

V. 1. Măng E asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "It is not being disobedient."

2. Soon after, as Fan Ch'e was driving him, the Master told him, saying, "Măng-sun asked me what filial piety was, and I answered him-'Not being disobedient. »

The sentence there is indicative, and in praise of one of the dukes of Loo, who had no depraved thoughts. The sage would seem to have been intending his own design in compiling the She. Individual pieces are calculated to have a different effect.

3. HOW RULERS SHOULD PREFER MORAL APPLIANCES.

4. CONFUCIUS' OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS GRADUAL PROGRESS AND ATTAINMENTS. Chinese commentators are perplexed with this chapter. Holding of Confucius, that "He was born with knowledge, and did what was right with entire ease," they say that he here conceals his sagehood, and puts himself on the level of common men, to set before them a stimulating example. We may believe that the compilers of the Analects, the sage's immediate disciples, did not think of him so extravagantly as later men have done. It is to be wished, however, that he had been more definite and diffuse in his account of himself. 1. The "learning," to which, at the age of fifteen, Confucius gave himself, is to be understood of the subjects of the "Superior Learning." See Choo He's preliminary essay to the Ta Heo. 2. The "standing firm " probably indicates that he no more needed to bend his will. 3. The "no doubts" may have been concerning what was proper in all circumstances and events. 4. "The decrees of Heaven," the things decreed by Heaven, the constitution of things making what was proper to be so. 5. "The ear obedient" is the mind receiving, as by intuition, the truth from the ear.

5. FILIAL PIETY MUST BE SHOWN ACCORDING TO THE RULES OF PROPRIETY. 1. Măng E was a great officer of the state of Loo, by name Ho-ke, and the chief of one of the three great families by which in the

3. Fan Ch'e said, "What did "" you mean? The Master replied, "That parents, when alive, should be served according to propriety; that when dead, they should be buried according to propriety; and that they should be sacrificed to according to propriety."

VI. Măng Woo asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "Parents are anxious lest their children should be sick."

VII. Tsze-yew asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "The filial piety of now-a-days means the support of one's parents. But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support;-without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the other?"

VIII. Tsze-hea asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "The difficulty is with the countenance. If, when their elders have any troublesome affairs, the young take the toil of them, and if, when the young have wine and food, they set them before their elders, is THIS to be considered filial piety?"

time of Confucius the authority of that state was grasped. Those families were descended from three brothers, the sons by a concubine of the Duke Hwan (B.C. 710-693). E, which means "mild and virtuous," was the posthumous honorary title given to Ho-ke. Fan Ch'e was a minor disciple of the sage. Confucius repeated his remark to Fan, that he might report the explanation of it to his friend Măng E, and thus prevent him from supposing that all the sage intended was disobedience to parents. 6. THE ANXIETY OF PARENTS ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN AN ARGUMENT FOR FILIAL PIETY. This enigmatical sentence has been interpreted in two ways. Choo He takes it thus:-"Parents have the sorrow of thinking anxiously about their-i. e. their children's-being unwell. Therefore children should take care of their persons." The old commentators interpreted differently: in the sense of "only.' ""Let parents have only the sorrow of their children's illness.

Let them have no other occasion
Măng Woo (the hon. epithet=

for sorrow. This will be filial piety." "Bold and of straightforward principle,") was the son of Măng E, of the last chapter.

7. HOW THERE MUST BE REVERENCE IN FILIAL DUTY. Tsze-yew was the designatiou of Yen Yen, a native of Woo, and distinguished among the disciples of Confucius for his knowledge of the rules of propriety, and for his learning. He is now among the "wise ones." Choo He gives a different turn to the sentiment. But dogs and horses likewise manage to get their support.' The other and older interpretation is better.

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8. THE DUTIES OF FILIAL PIETY MUST BE PERFORMED WITH A ⚫ CHEERFUL COUNTENANCE. To the different interrogatories here recorded about filial duty, the sage, we are told, made answer according to the character of the questioner, as each one needed instruction.

IX. The Master said, "I have talked with Hwuy for a whole day, and he has not made any objection to anything I said;-as if he were stupid. He has retired, and I have examined his conduct when away from me, and found him able to illustrate my teachings. not stupid."

Hwuy! He is

X. 1. The Master said, "See what a man does. 2. "Mark his motives.

3. "Examine in what things he rests.

4. "How can a man conceal his character!

5. "How can a man conceal his character!

XI. The Master said, “If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others."

XII. The Master said, "The accomplished scholar is not an utensil."

XIII. Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior man. The Master said, "He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions."

XIV. The Master said, "The superior man is catholic and no partizan. The mean man is a partizan and not catholic."

XV. The Master said, "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous."

XVI. The Master said, "The study of strange doctrines is injurious indeed!"

9. THE QUIET RECEPTIVITY OF THE DISCIPLE HWUY., Yen Hwuy was Confucius' favourite disciple, and is now honoured with the first place east among his four assessors in his temples, with the title of "The second sage, the philosopher Yen." At the age of twenty-nine, his hair was entirely white; and at thirty-three, he died, to the excessive grief of the sage.

10. How To DETERMINE THE CHARACTERS OF MEN.

11. TO BE ABLE TO TEACH OTHERS ONE MUST FROM HIS OLD STORES BE CONTINUALLY DEVELOPING THINGS NEW.

12. THE GENERAL APTITUDE OF THE SUPERIOR MAN. This is not like our English saying, that "such a man is a machine,”—a blind instrument. An utensil has its particular use. It answers for that and no other. Not so with the superior man, who is ad omnia paratus.

The

13. How WITH THE SUPERIOR MAN WORDS FOLLOW ACTIONS. reply is literally: "He first acts his words, and afterwards follows them.” 14. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUPERIOR MAN AND THE SMALL MAN. The sentence is this" With the superior man, it is principles not men; with the small man, the reverse.'

15. IN LEARNING, READING AND THOUGHT MUST BE COMBINED. 16. STRANGE DOCTRINES ARE NOT TO BE STUDIED. In Confucius' time