and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." For the Divine Being Christianity thus demands from all men supreme love; the love of all that is majestic, awing the soul; the love of all that is beautiful, wooing the heart; the love of all that is good, possessing and mastering the entire nature. Such a love, existing, would necessitate obedience to every law, natural or revealed. Christianity, however, goes on to specify the duties which every man owes, as the complement of love to God, to his fellow-men:- "Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this-Thou shalt not commit adultery,' 'Thou shalt not kill,'Thou shalt not steal,' "Thou shalt not bear false witness,' 'Thou shalt not covet;' and if there be any other commandment:-the whole is briefly comprehended in this saying, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."" This commandment is "like to" the other, only differing from it in not requiring the supreme love which is due to God alone. The rule which it prescribes, such love to others as we feel for ourselves,-is much more definitely and intelligibly expressed than anything we find in Mih, and is not liable to the cavils with which his doctrine was assailed. Such a love to men, existing, would necessitate the performance of every relative and social duty; we could not help doing to others as we would that they should do to us.

Mih's universal love was to find its scope and consummation in the good government of China. He had not the idea of man as man, any more than Confucius or Mencius. How can that idea be fully realized, indeed, where there is not the right knowledge of one living and true God, the creator and common parent of all? The love which Christianity inculcates is a law of humanity; paramount to all selfish, personal feelings; paramount to all relative, local, national attachments; paramount to all distinctions of race or of religion. Apprehended in the spirit of Christ, it will go forth even to the love of enemies; it will energize in a determination to be always increasing the sum of others' happiness, limited only by the means of doing so.

But I stop. These prolegomena are the place for disquisition; but I deemed it right to say thus much here of that true, universal love, which at once gives glory to God and effects peace on earth.

THE WORKS OF MENCIUS.

BOOK I.

KING HWUY OF LEANG. PART I.

CHAPTER I. 1. Mencius [went to] see king Hwuy of Leang.

The title of the Work in Chinese is simply Măng-tsze, or "The Philosopher Măng;" thus simply bearing the name, or surname rather, of him whose conversations and opinions it relates, and which, it is said, were compiled in their present form by himself. He is always called Măng-tsze, or Mencius, throughout the work, and not "the Master," which epithet is confined to Confucius. See on the Analects, I. i. See also the sketch of Mencius' life in the Prolegomena.

The title of this Book in Chinese is "King Hwuy of Leang; in chapters and sentences. Parts I. and II." Like the Books of the Confucian Analects, those of this work are headed by two or three words at or near the commencement of them. Each Book is divided into two parts. This arrangement was made by Chaou K'e,, who has been spoken of in the Prolegomena, and to him are due also the divisions into chapters, and sentences or paragraphs containing, it may be, many sentences.

CH. I. BENEVOLENCE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS MENCIUS' ONLY TOPICS WITH THE PRINCES OF HIS TIME; AND THE ONLY PRINCIPLES WHICH CAN MAKE A COUNTRY PROSPEROUS.

Par. 1. "King Hwuy of Leang."-In the time of Confucius, Tsin was one of the great States, perhaps the greatest State, of the kingdom,-but the power of it was usurped by six great families or clans. By B.C. 452, three of these were absorbed by the other three, the clans, namely, of Wei, Chaou, and Han, which continued to encroach on the small remaining authority of their princes, till at last they divided the whole territory among themselves. King Wei-lëeh, in B.C. 402, granted to the chief of each family the title of Marquis. Wei, called also, from the name of its capital, Leang, occupied what had been the south-eastern part of Tsin, Han and Chaou lying to the west and north-west of it. The Leang, where Mencius visited king Hwuy, is said to have been in the present district of Ts'ëang-foo, department K'ae-fung. Hwuy-" of soft disposition and kind to the people "—was the posthumous or sacrificial epithet of the king, whose name was Yung. He had usurped the

2. The king said, "Venerable Sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand le, may I presume that you are likewise provided with [counsels] to profit my kingdom?"

3. Mencius replied, "Why must your Majesty use that word profit? What I am likewise provided with are [counsels to] benevolence and righteousness; and these are my only topics.

4. "If your Majesty say, 'What is to be done to profit my kingdom?' the great officers will say, ' What is to be done to profit our families?' and the [inferior] officers and the common people will say, 'What is to be done to profit our persons? Superiors and inferiors will try to take the profit the one from the other, and the kingdom will be endangered. In the kingdom of ten thousand chariots, the murderer of his ruler will be [the chief of] a family of a thousand chariots. In the State of a thousand chariots, the

title of king, as the princes of many other States did about the same time, before Mencius visited him, which it is said was in the 35th year of his government, B.C. 335. The philosopher, it is supposed, visited him on invitation.

Par. 2. Mencius, we have seen, was a native of Tsow in Loo, the name of which still remains in the Tsow district of the department Yen-chow, in Shantung. The king in complimentary style calls the distance from Tsow to Leang a thousand le, though in reality it was not half so much. The "venerable Sir," with which he salutes the philosopher, should also be taken as complimentary, and we cannot draw any inference from it as to the age of Mencius at this time. The "likewise" has led to much speculation to bring out its meaning. Some think that the king is referring to the many scholars of that age, who made it their business to wander from State to State to counsel the princes, so that his meaning was :-" You also, like other scholars," &c. Then when Mencius in reply uses the same term, they think that he is referring to the ancient sages as his models "I also, like them," &c. This is too farfetched. I suppose that the king's "likewise " follows the clause "You have come a thousand le," and means, "That is one favour, but you probably have others to confer also." Then Mencius' "likewise " refers to the king's, and "You say I likewise have counsels to profit you. What I likewise have is benevolence," &c.

=

Par. 3. Benevolence is defined by Choo He as "the virtue of the mind, the principle of love," and righteousness as "the regulation of the mind, the fitness of things." Mencius had in mind the benevolent government of which he speaks at length in many places. See especially the 7th chapter of this

Part.

Par. 4. By "the kingdom of ten thousand chariots is meant the royal domain, which, according to the theory of the kingdom, could send into the field 10,000 chariots; and by "the chief of a family of a thousand chariots,"

246

murderer of his ruler will be [the chief of] a family of a hundred chariots. To have a thousand in ten thousand, and a hundred in a thousand, cannot be regarded as not a large allowance; but if righteousness be put last and profit first, they will not be satisfied without snatching all.

5. "There never was a man trained to benevolence who neglected his parents. There never was a man trained to righteousness who made his ruler an after-consideration.

6. "Let your Majesty likewise make benevolence and righteousness your only themes; why must you speak of profit ? ” 245

II. 1. When Mencius [another day] was seeing king Hwuy of Leang, the king [went and] stood [with him] by a pond, and, looking round on the wild geese and deer, large and small, said, "Do wise and good [princes] also take pleasure in these things?'

2. Mencius replied, "Being wise and good, they then have pleasure in these things. If they are not wise and good, though they have these things, they do not find pleasure.

3. "It is said in the Book of Poetry :

'When he planned the commencement of the Marvellous tower, He planned it, and defined it,

And the people in crowds undertook the work,

And in no time completed it.

When he planned the commencement, [he said], "Be not in a hurry ;"

one of the king's principal ministers, whose territory, which was in the royal domain, was supposed to be able to send forth a thousand chariots. "A State of a thousand chariots" was one of the largest of the feudal States, and "the chief of a family of a hundred chariots" was one of its principal ministers, the head of a powerful clan.

Par. 5. In the "likewise " here Mencius turns the tables on the king. Let him follow the example of the philosopher, confident in the truth of the positions which he had stated.

CH. II. RULERS MUST SHARE THEIR PLEASURES WITH THE PEOPLE. THEY CAN ONLY BE HAPPY WHEN THEY RULE OVER HAPPY SUBJECTS.

Parr. 1, 2. Par. 1 must be supplemented as I have done. Mencius would go to the court; and then the king would go with him, or have left orders for him to be brought to the park. Observe the " also" in the king's question, and the "then" in Mencius' reply.

Par. 3. Here is an instance of a wise and good prince happy with his happy subjects in his park and tower and pond. See the Book of Poetry,