e of
learning, sinks into vanity. Love of truth, without love of learning,
sinks into cruelty. Love of straightness, without love of learning,
sinks into rudeness. Love of daring, without love of learning, sinks
into turbulence. Love of strength, without love of learning, sinks
into oddity.

9. The Master said, My little children, why do ye not learn poetry?
Poetry would ripen you; teach you insight, friendliness and
forbearance; show you how to serve your father at home; and teach your
lord abroad; and it would teach you the names of many birds and
beasts, plants and trees.

10. The Master said to Po-yue,[157] Hast thou done the Chou-nan and
Shao-nan?[158] He that has not done the Chou-nan and Shao-nan is like
a man standing with his face to the wall.

11. The Master said, 'Courtesy, courtesy,' is the cry; but are jade
and silk the whole of courtesy? 'Music, music,' is the cry; but are
bells and drums the whole of music?

12. The Master said, Fierce looks and weakness within are like the
small man, like the thief that breaks through or clambers over a wall.

[Footnote 156: Tzu-lu.]

[Footnote 157: His son.]

[Footnote 158: The first two books of _The Book of Poetry_.]

13. The Master said, The plain townsman is the bane of mind.

14. The Master said, To tell unto the dust all that we hear upon the
way is to lay waste the mind.

15. The Master said, How can we serve the king with a low fellow, who
is itching to get what he wants and trembling to lose what he has?
This trembling to lose what he has may lead him anywhere.

16. The Master said, Men of old had three failings, which have,
perhaps, died out to-day. Ambitious men of old were not nice; now they
are unprincipled. Stern men of old were hard; now they are
quarrelsome. Ignorant men of old were straight; now they are false.
That is all.

17. The Master said, Smooth words and fawning looks are seldom found
with love.

18. The Master said, I hate the ousting of scarlet by purple. I hate
the strains of Cheng, confounders of sweet music. I hate a sharp
tongue, the ruin of kingdom and home.

19. The Master said, I wish no word were spoken!

Tzu-kung said, Sir, if ye said no word, what could your little
children write?

The Master said, What are the words of Heaven? The four seasons pass,
the hundred things bear life. What are the words of Heaven?

20. Ju Pei wished to see Confucius. Confucius pleaded sickness; but,
as the messenger left his door,