XV. 1. The disciple Kung-too asked, saying, "All are equally men, but some are great men, and others are little men; how is this?" Mencius replied, "Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men."

2. Kung-too pursued, "All are equally men; but some follow that part of themselves which is great, and some that which is little; how is this?" Mencius said, "The ears and the eyes have it not in their office to think, and are [liable to be] obscured by things [affecting them]; and when one thing comes into contact with another, it simply leads it away. But it is in the office of the mind to think. By thinking, it gets [the right view of things]; when neglecting to think, it fails to do this. These-[the senses and the mind]-are what Heaven has given to us. Let a man first stand in [the supremacy of] the greater [and nobler] part of his constitution, and the smaller part will not be able to take it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man.”

XVI. 1. Mencius said, "There is a nobility of Heaven, and there is a nobility of man. Benevolence, righteousness, self-consecration, and fidelity, with unwearied joy in the

parts are first cared for as they ought to be. While Mencius argued that the appetites and passions should be kept in subjection, he would give no countenance to the practice of asceticism.

CH. XV. THAT SOME ARE GREAT MEN, LORDS OF REASON; AND SOME ARE LITTLE MEN, SLAVES OF SENSE.

Kung-too might have gone on to inquire ::-" All are equally men; but some stand fast in the nobler part of their constitution, and others allow its supremacy to be snatched away by the inferior part :-how is this?" Mencius would have tried to carry the difficulty a step farther back, and after all have left it where it originally was. His saying that the nature of man is good can be reconciled with the teaching of Christianity; but his views of human nature as a whole are open to the three objections which I have stated in the note to the 21st chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean.

CH. XVI. THERE IS A NOBILITY THAT IS OF HEAVEN, AND A NOBILITY THAT IS OF MAN; AND THE NEGLECT OF THE FORMER LEADS TO THE LOSS OF THE LATTER.

Par. 1. On the "nobility of man," and its classes, see V. Pt II. ii. What I have translated "self-consecration" and " 'fidelity are taken as devotion in mind and act to "benevolence and righteousness," and the "joy in goodness" is also the goodness of those virtues.

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goodness [of these virtues],-these constitute the nobility of Heaven. To be a duke, a minister, or a great officer,-this constitutes the nobility of man.

2. "The men of antiquity cultivated their nobility of Heaven, and the nobility of man came in its train.

3. "The men of the present day cultivate their nobility of Heaven in order to seek for the nobility of man, and when they have obtained this, they throw away the other ; their delusion is extreme. The issue is simply this, that they must lose [that nobility of man] as well."

XVII. 1. Mencius said, "To desire to be what is considered honourable is the common mind of men. And all men have what is [truly] honourable in themselves; only they do not think of it.

2. "The honour which man confers is not the truly good honour. Those to whom Chaou-măng gave honourable rank he could make mean again.

3. "It is said in the Book of Poetry

Par. 2. We have here merely the laudation temporis acti.

Par. 3. On "their delusion is extreme" it is said :-"When the nobility of Heaven is cultivated in order to seek for the nobility of man, at the very time it is cultivated, there is a previous mind to throw it away;-showing the existence of delusion. Then when the nobility of man has been got, to throw away the nobility of Heaven exhibits conduct after the attainment not equal even to that in the time of search, so that the delusion is extreme." Several commentators observe that facts may be referred to, apparently inconsistent with what is said in the last sentence of this paragraph, and then go on to say that the preservation of the nobility of man, in the case supposed, is only a lucky accident, and that the issue ought always to be as Mencius affirms. Yes; but all moral teachings must be imperfect where the thoughts are bounded by what is seen and temporal.

CH. XVII. THE TRUE HONOUR WHICH MEN SHOULD DESIRE. A sequel to the preceding chapter. 'Nobility "is the material dignity, and “honour” is the estimation which springs from it.

Par. 2. The really good honour" is that which springs from the nobility of Heaven, and of which human power cannot deprive its possessor. The Chaou family was one of the principal houses of the State of Tsin, and four of its chiefs had had the title of Mång, or "the chief," combined with their surname. They were a sort of "king-making Warwicks," and figure largely in the narratives of Tso K'ëw-ming.

Par. 3. See the Book of Poetry, Part III. ii. Ode III. st. 1. The Ode is one responsive from the uncles and cousins of the reigning king of Chow for the kindness he had shown and the honour he had done to them at a

'You have made us to drink to the full of your spirits;
You have satiated us with your kindness;

meaning that [the guests] were filled with benevolence and righteousness, and therefore did not wish for the fat meat and fine millet of men. When a good reputation and farreaching praise fall to [a man's] person, he does not desire the elegant embroidered garments of men."

XVIII. 1. Mencius said, "Benevolence subdues its opposite just as water subdues fire. Those, however, who now-a-days practise benevolence [do it] as if with a cup of water they could save a whole waggon-load of faggots which was on fire, and when the flames were not extinguished were to say that water cannot subdue fire. Such a course, moreover, is the greatest aid to what is not benevolent.

2. "The final issue will simply be this, the loss [of that small amount of benevolence]."

XIX. Mencius said, "Of all seeds the best are the five kinds of grain, but if they are not ripe, they are not equal to the t'e or the pae. So the value of benevolence lies simply in its being brought to maturity."

sacrificial feast. Mencius' use of the lines is a mere accommodation of them.

CH. XVIII. IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT IT IS ADAPTED TO DO, BENEVOLENCE MUST BE PRACTISED VIGOROUSLY AND FULLY, SO ONLY, INDEED, CAN IT BE PRESERVED. Compare with this chapter Mencius' conversation with king Hwuy of Leang in I. Pt I. iii., and also his saying in VI. Pt II. i. 6.

Par. 1. Chaou K'e takes the conclusion of this paragraph as meaning— "This moreover is equivalent to the course of those who are the greatest practisers of what is not benevolent." But both the sentiment and construction are in this way made more difficult.

CH. XIX. BENEVOLENCE MUST BE MATURED. akin to that of the former chapter, and is perhaps pressed.

The sentiment here is rather unguardedly ex

The t'e and pae They are a kind of spu

For "the five kinds of grain" see on III. Pt I. iv. 8. are two plants closely resembling each other.

rious grain, yielding a small seed like rice or millet. They are to be found at all times, in wet situations and dry, and, when crushed and roasted, may satisfy the hunger in a time of famine."

XX. 1. Mencius said, "E, in teaching men to shoot, made it a rule to draw the bow to the full, and his pupils were required to do the same.

2. "A master-workman, in teaching others, must use the compass and square, and his pupils must do the same."

CHAPTER I. 1. A man of Jin asked the disciple Uh-loo, saying, "Is [an observance of] the rules of propriety [in regard to eating] or the eating the more important?" The answer was, "[The observance of] the rules of propriety is the more important."

2. "Is [the gratifying] the appetite of sex or [the doing so only] according to the rules of propriety the more important?'

CH. XX, LEARNING MUST NOT BE BY HALVES, BUT BY THE FULL USE OF THE RULES APPROPRIATE TO WHAT IS LEARNED. Compare with this

chapter what Mencius says in IV. Pt I. i. and ii.

Pur. 1. For E see on IV. Pt II. xxiv. 1. On this chapter Choo He says: "This chapter shows that affairs must be proceeded with according to their laws, and then they can be accomplished. But if a master neglect these, he cannot teach; and if a pupil neglect them, he cannot learn. In small arts it is so ;-how much more with the principles of the sages!

EXTREME CASES

CH. I. TO OBSERVE THE RULES OF PROPRIETY IN OUR CONDUCT IS A MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE, AND WHERE THEY MAY BE DISREGARDED, THE EXCEPTION WILL BE FOUND TO PROVE THE RULE. MUST NOT BE PRESSED SO AS TO INVALIDATE THE PRINCIPLE, Par. 1. Jin was a small earldom, referred to the present Tse-ning Chow, in Yen chow department, Shan-tung. The distance between the city of Jin and Mencius' native city of Tsow was only between 30 and 40 miles. Uhloo, by name Leen, a native of Tsin, was a disciple of Mencius, and is said by some to have written on the doctrines of "the old Păng" and Laoutsze. The man of Jin's questions are not to be understood of propriety in the abstract, but of the rules of propriety understood to regulate the other things which he mentioned.

3. The answer [again] was, "[The observance of] the rules of propriety [in the matter] is the more important; [and then the man] said, "If the consequence of eating [only] according to the rules of propriety will be death from starvation, while by disregarding those rules one can get food, must he still observe them [in such a case]? If, according to the rule that he shall go in person to meet his bride, a man cannot get married, while by disregarding the rule he can get married, must he still hold to the rule [in such a case]?"

4. Uh-loo was unable to reply [to these questions], and next day he went to Tsow and told them to Mencius, who said, "What difficulty is there in answering these inquiries?

5. "If you do not bring them together at the bottom, but only at their tops, a piece of wood an inch square may be made to be higher than the pointed ridge of a high building.

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6. Metal is heavier than feathers; '-but does that saying have reference to a single clasp of metal and a waggonload of feathers?

7. "If you take a case where the eating is all-important, and the observing the rules of propriety is of little importance, and compare them together, why merely say that the eating is the more important? [So,] taking the case where the gratifying the appetite of sex is all-important, and the observing the rules of propriety is of little importance, why merely say that the gratifying the appetite is the more important?

8. "Go and answer him thus: If by twisting round your elder brother's arm, and snatching from him what he is eating, you can get food for yourself, while, if you do not do so, you cannot get such food, will you so twist round his arm? And if by getting over your neighbour's wall, and dragging away his virgin daughter, you can get a wife for yourself, while if you do not do so, you cannot get such wife, will you so drag her away?""

Par. 7. See in V. Pt I. ii. 1 how Mencius disposes of the charge against Shun for marrying without the knowledge of his parents,—an offence against the rules of propriety greater than that which the man of Jin had supposed. That case and even those adduced here came under the category of that necessity which has no law.