destined." The superior man, consequently, does not permit himself to be influenced by external considerations and influences, but follows the natural law of his ideal, the will of God. Thus he proceeds steadily and surely, preserving his peace of mind, and finally obtaining more than the world can, with all its feverish restlessness and haste in the struggle for happiness. Yet it is no stoical resignation which is here recommended. The inborn moral law must be fulfilled; this the superior man acts ́out voluntarily as the problem of life; everything else is but secondary. This is actually in a slightly different form a fundamental doctrine of Christian truth. But to how few Christians, alas! has this become the law of their daily lives! The minding of the world rules in many who profess and call themselves Christians.

222. In this way he works transformingly (p. 331). "Wherever the superior man passes by, transformation is effected; where he remains, it is as a spirit; towards the upper and lower he flows forth with heaven and earth; is this termed helping it forward only a little?" No man remains entirely without influence over his surroundings. It is everywhere logically correct that the superior man works in such a manner, in proportion to his capacity, but in reality it is seldom the case. The cause lies in the contrariety and opposition which approach on every side and exert their baneful influences.

"The

223. He does not fight from choice (p. 86). superior man does not contend from choice, when he to whom the whole realm voluntarily submits attacks him against whom even relations are in rebellion; but if he has to fight, he conquers." This virtue alone ought to subdue all hearts to him, and so secure dominion for him. Confucianists have learnt, alas! and that not only from Chinese history, which affords numberless examples, that the evil are far more agreeable to the passions of their supporters, and that sin and vice obtain authority more easily than virtue; for men are more easily governed

through their appetites than through their affection for the ideal.

224. He does not injure men to obtain land.

225. His virtue is like the wind.

226. He is inflexible.

227. He exhibits neither narrowness nor insolence. 228. His affection is graduated, embracing things, people, and relations.

229. His influence extends to the fifth generation. 230. He guides his sovereign aright.

231. Is not niggardly.

232. Does not vex his children.

233. Employs various methods of education. 234. Holds no intercourse with the haughty. 235. His forbearance has limits.

(c.) The Treatment which he Experiences.

236. This, unhappily, does not correspond to his work, but is altogether discouraging. "He is deceived," even by his subordinates (p. 224).

237. "The masses do not comprehend him" (p. 311). 238. He is sometimes in "great distress externally " (p. 362).

239. He receives support from those in power (p. 92). 240. Sustenance afforded by the state for his counsel is “criticised but justified" (p. 344).

241. Yet this assistance is to be rendered in an honourable manner (p. 262).

242. He ought not to be paid off.

243. He will not permit himself to be either entrapped or allured by vain forms. Mencius said (p. 347), "Support without affection is termed being reckoned with the swine. Affection without reverence is the same as rearing a pet animal. Honour and respect are there before silkstuffs are presented. Honour and respect without reality cannot constrain the superior man without some

I

thing further." Words and deeds corresponding remove as far as possible all doubt as to the sentiment which superiors actually entertain towards us. One knows then whereabouts he is.

244. Corresponding treatment on the part of princes. 245. Why he is not himself the Emperor. (Cf. Arts. 270-I.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HOLY OR IDEAL MAN.1

(a.) His Individuality.

246. "INFLUENCE which is great and transforming is termed holiness" (p. 366). Holiness which one cannot comprehend is termed spiritual (godlike). (Cf. Art. 56 ante.) Consequently holiness has its sphere of operation within the limits of human comprehension, yet the next step in advance lands us in the region of the incomprehensible, which is the marvellous.

247. The work of holiness is to make perfect.

248. Benevolence and wisdom are his distinguishing characteristics.

249. Filial affection and brotherhood.

250. Holiness is the efficient of human relations (p. 168). Mencius said, "The square and compass are the efficients of curves and quadrangles. The holy man is the efficient of human relations." In holiness, therefore, is exhibited the highest human perfection, that which is gifted for everything, but specially on the side of morals; for the ethical is with Mencius the specifically human. It is also to be considered that holiness does not consist in separation from other men, but in the fulfilment of our normal social relations to them.

251. "He has attained before others to that which is common to all men." (Cf. Art. 6 ante.) That is to say, the holy man is fully conscious of possessing in subjection

1 See Digest of Confucius, p. 43.

to the power of his will that which is innate in all men as the norm of human faculties.

252. Holy men tend towards the same moral end, although they arrive at it by different paths (p. 192). "Shun was a man of the Eastern barbarians, King Wan of the Western. The places of their births and deaths are more than a thousand miles distant from each other; they were separated from each other in time by more than a thousand years. If their tendency had been throughly worked out in the middle kingdom (China), they would have been in entire correspondence, like the two halves of a seal. The manner in which the former holy men and those of later days acted was one and the same.' Inquiry is much more generally directed to the origin of any one than to that to which his energies are directed. In view of the true end of humanity, this alone is of importance; that of almost none, or at best of merely subordinate importance. These heralds of the revelation of what is human corresponded to each other in essentials; so did the heralds of divine revelation, but only in their tendency and aim. All individualities demand a teleologic consideration in the above sense, in order to be understood.

253. He offers to men that chief good which nothing else can supply.

254. The holy men are the same in kind as ourselves, but are simply perfected individuals (p. 71). (Cf. Arts. 6 and 302.) "What the unicorn is amongst quadrupeds, the phoenix amongst birds, the T'ae mountain amongst hills, rivers and oceans amongst rainpools in regard to kind, that the holy are amongst people generally; they are of the same kind, but standing out from those of like kind, they tower above their contemporaries." The passage quoted in Art. 6 ante brings out the equality very sharply; in this we have simply the difference noted, but it is one of degree, not one arising from a diversity of nature.

255. This difference, however, depends upon action and practice, as it is with physical strength (p. 301). "One