V. The Master said, "Extreme is my decay. For a long time I have not dreamed, as I was wont to do, that I saw the Duke of Chow.”

VI.

1. The Master said, "Let the will be set on the path of duty.

2 "Let every attainment in what is good be firmly grasped.

3. "Let perfect virtue be accorded with.

4. "Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the polite

arts.'

VII. The Master said, "From the man bringing his bundle of dried flesh for my teaching upwards, I have never refused instruction to any one.”

5. HOW THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF CONFUCIUS' HOPES AFFECTED EVEN HIS DREAMS. Chow was the name of the seat of the family from which the dynasty so called sprang, and on the enlargement of this territory, King Wăn divided the original seat between his sons, Tan and Shih. Tan was "the duke of Chow," in wisdom and politics what his elder brother, the first emperor, Woo, was in arms. Confucius had longed to bring the principles and institutions of Chow-kung into practice, and in his earlier years, while hope animated him, had often dreamt of the former sage. The original territory of Chow was what is now the district of K'e-shan, department of Fung-tseang, in Shen-se.

6. RULES FOR THE FULL MATURING OF CHARACTER. See a note on "The polite arts," I. vi. A full enumeration makes "six arts," viz. ceremonies, music, archery, charioteering, the study of characters or language, and figures or arithmetic. The ceremonies were ranged in five classes: lucky or sacrifices, unlucky or the mourning ceremonies, military, those of host and guest, and festive. Music required the study of the music of Hwang-te, of Yaou, of Shun, of Yu, of T'ang, and of Woo. Archery had a five-fold classification. Charioteering had the same. The study of the characters required the examination of them, to determine whether there predominated in their formation resemblance to the object, combination of ideas, indication of properties, a phonetic principle, a principle of contrariety, or metaphorical accommodation. Figures were managed according to nine rules, as the object was the measurement of land, capacity, &c. These six subjects were the business of the highest and most liberal education; but we need not suppose that Confucius had them all in view here.

It was

7. THE READINESS OF CONFUCIUS TO IMPART INSTRUCTION. the rule anciently that when one party waited on another, he should carry some present or offering with him. Pupils did so when they first waited on their teacher. Of such offerings, one of the lowest was a bundle of "dried flesh." The wages of a teacher are now called "the money of the dried flesh." However small the offering brought to the sage, let him only see the indication of a wish to learn, and he imparted his instructions.

VIII. The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson."

IX. 1. When the Master was eating by the side of a mourner, he never ate to the full.

2. He did not sing on the same day in which he had been weeping.

X. 1. The Master said to Yen Yuen, "When called to office, to undertake its duties; when not so called, to lie retired; it is only I and you who have attained to this."

2. Tsze-loo said, "If you had the conduct of the armies of a great State, whom would you have to act with you?"

3. The Master said, "I would not have him to act with me, who will unarmed attack a tiger, or cross a river without a boat, dying without any regret. My associate must be the man who proceeds to action full of solicitude, who is fond of adjusting his plans, and then carries them into execution."

XI. The Master said, "If the search for riches is sure to be successful, though I should become a servant with whip in hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love."

8. CONFUCIUS REQUIRED A REAL DESIRE AND ABILITY IN HIS DISCIPLES. The last chapter tells of the sage's readiness to teach, which shows that he did not teach where his teaching was likely to prove of no avail. 9. CONFUCIUS' SYMPATHY WITH MOURNERS. The weeping is understood to be on occasion of offering his condolences to a mourner.

10. THE ATTAINMENTS OF HWUY LIKE THOSE OF CONFUCIUS. THE EXCESSIVE BOLDNESS OF TSZE-LOO. The words "unarmed to attack a tiger; without a boat to cross a river," are from the She King, Pt II., Bk V. i. 6. . Tsze-loo, it would appear, was jealous of the praise conferred on Hwuy, and pluming himself on his bravery, put in for a share of the Master's approbation. But he only brought on himself rebuke.

11. THE UNCERTAINTY AND FOLLY OF THE PURSUIT OF RICHES. It occurs to a student to understand the first clause-" If it be proper to “If search for riches," and the third-" I will do it." But the translation is according to the modern commentary, and the conclusion agrees better with it. In explaining the words about "whip in hand," some refer us to the attendants who cleared the street with their whips when the prince went abroad, but we need not seek any particular allusion of the kind.

XII. The things in reference to which the Master exercised the greatest caution were-fasting, war, and sickness.

XIII. When the Master was in Ts'e, he heard the Shaou, and for three months did not know the taste of flesh. "I did not think," he said, "that music could have been made so excellent as this."

XIV. 1. Yen Yew said, "Is our Master for the prince of Wei?" Tsze-kung said, "Oh! I will ask him."

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2. He went in accordingly, and said, "What sort of men were Pih-e and Shuh-ts'e?" 'They were ancient worthies," said the Master. "Did they have any repinings because of their course?" The Master again replied, "They sought to act virtuously, and they did so; what

An objection to the pursuit of wealth may be made on the ground of righteousness (as in chapter xiv.) or on that of its uncertainty. It is the latter on which Confucius here rests.

12. WHAT THINGS CONFUCIUS WAS PARTICULARLY CAREFUL ABOUT. The word used here for "fasting" denotes the whole religious adjustment, enjoined before the offering of sacrifice, and extending over the ten days previous to the great sacrificial seasons. Properly it means "to equalize," and the effect of those previous exercises was "to adjust what was not adjusted, to produce a perfect adjustment." Sacrifices presented in such a state of mind were sure to be acceptable. Other people, it is said, might be heedless in reference to sacrifices, to war, and to sickness, but not so the sage.

13. THE EFFECT OF MUSIC ON CONFUCIUS. The shaou, see III. 25. This incident must have happened in the 36th year of Confucius, when he followed the Duke Ch'aou in his flight from Loo to Ts'e. As related in the "Historical Records," before the words "three months," we have “he learned it," which may relieve us from the necessity of extending the three months over all the time in which he did not know the taste of his food. In Ho An's compilation, the " did not know" is explained by "he was careless about and forgot."

14. CONFUCIUS DID NOT APPROVE OF A SON OPPOSING HIS FATHER. 1. The eldest son of Duke Ling of Wei had planned to kill his mother (? stepmother), the notorious Nan-tsze (VI. xxvi.). For this he had to flee the country, and his son, on the death of Ling, became duke, and subsequently opposed his father's attempts to wrest the sovereignty from him. This was the matter argued among the disciples,-Was Confucius for the son, the reigning duke ? 2. In Wei it would not have been according to propriety to speak by name of its ruler, and therefore Tszekung put the case of Pih-e and Shuh-ts'e, see V. xxii. They having given up a throne, and finally their lives, rather than do what they thought wrong, and Confucius fully approving of their conduct, it was plain he could not approve of a son's holding by force what was the rightful inheritance of the father.

was there for them to repine about?" On this, Tszekung went out and said, "Our Master is not for him."

XV. The Master said, "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow ;-I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honours acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a float- . ing cloud."

XVI. The Master said, "If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the YIH, and then I might come to be without great faults."

XVII. The Master's frequent themes of discourse were -the Odes, the Book of History, and the maintenance of the Rules of propriety. On all these he frequently discoursed.

XVIII. 1. The duke of She asked Tsze-loo about Confucius, and Tsze-loo did not answer him.

2. The Master said, "Why did you not say to him,He is simply a man, who in his eager pursuit of knowledge forgets his food, who in the joy of its attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not perceive that old age is coming on?"

XIX.

The Master said, "I am not one who was born in

15. THE JOY OF CONFUCIUS INDEPENDENT OF OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES, HOWEVER STRAITENED.

16. THE VALUE WHICH CONFUCIUS SET UPON THE STUDY OF THE YIH. Choo He supposes that this was spoken when Confucius was about seventy, as he was in his 68th year when he ceased his wanderings, and settled in Loo to the adjustment and compilation of the Yih and other king. If the remark be referred to that time, an error may well be found in the number fifty, for he would hardly be speaking at seventy of having fifty years added to his life. Choo also mentions the report of a certain individual that he had seen a copy of the Lun Yu, which made the passage read:"If I had some more years to finish the study of the Yih,” &c. Ho An interprets the chapter quite differently. Referring to the saying, II. iv. "At fifty, I knew the decrees of heaven," he supposes this to have been spoken when Confucius was forty-seven, and explains-" In a few years more I will be fifty, and have finished the Yih, when I may be without great faults."-One thing remains upon both views :-Confucius never claimed what his followers do for him, to be a perfect man.

17. CONFUCIUS' MOST COMMON TOPICS.

18. CONFUCIUS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS CHARACTER AS BEING SIMPLY A MOST EARNEST LEARNER. She was a district of Ts'oo, the governor or prefect of which had usurped the title of duke. Its name is still preserved in a district of the department of Nan-yung, in the south of Ho-nan.

19. CONFUCIUS' KNOWLEDGE NOT CONNATE, BUT THE RESULT OF HIS

the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there."

XX. The subjects on which the Master did not talk, were, prodigious things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.

XXI. The Master said, "When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them."

XXII. The Master said, "Heaven produced the virtue that is in me. Hwan T'uy--what can he do to me?

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XXIII. The Master said, "Do you think, my disciples, that I have any concealments? I conceal nothing from you. There is nothing which I do that is not shown to you, my disciples;—that is my way."

XXIV. There were four things which the Master taught,―letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness.

XXV. 1. The Master said, "A sage it is not mine to STUDY OF ANTIQUITY. Here again, according to commentators, is a wonderful instance of the sage's humility disclaiming what he really had. The comment of Yun Ho-tsing, subjoined to Choo He's own, is to the effect that the knowledge born with a man is only "righteousness" and reason," while ceremonies, music, names of things, history, &c., must be learned. This would make what we may call connate or innate knowledge the moral sense, and those intuitive principles of reason, on and by which all knowledge is built up. But Confucius could not mean to deny his being possessed of these.

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20. SUBJECTS AVOIDED BY CONFUCIUS IN CONVERSATION. By "disorder" are meant rebellious disorder, parricide, regicide, and such crimes. For an instance of Confucius avoiding the subject of spiritual beings, see XI. xi.

21. How A MAN MAY FIND INSTRUCTORS FOR HIMSELF.

22. CONFUCIUS CALM IN DANGER, THROUGH THE ASSURANCE OF HAVING A DIVINE MISSION. According to the historical accounts, Confucius was passing through Sung on his way from Wei to Ch'in, and was practising ceremonies with his disciples under a large tree, when they were set upon by emissaries of Hwan T'uy, a high officer of Sung. These pulled down the tree, and wanted to kill the sage. His disciples urged him to make haste and escape, when he calmed their fears by these words. At the same time, he disguised himself till he had got past Sung. This story may be apocryphal, but the saying remains,-a remarkable one.

23. CONFUCIUS PRACTISED NO CONCEALMENT WITH HIS DISCIPLES. 24. THE COMMON SUBJECTS OF CONFUCIUS' TEACHING. I confess to apprehend but vaguely the two latter subjects as distinguished from the second.

25. THE PAUCITY OF TRUE MEN IN, AND THE PRETENTIOUSNESS OF CONFUCIUS' TIME. We have in the chapter a climax of character :