government, he answered, "Do not wish for speedy results. Do not look
at trivial advantages. If you wish for speedy results, they will not
be far-reaching; and if you regard trivial advantages you will not
successfully deal with important affairs."

The Duke of Sheh in a conversation with Confucius said, "There are
some straightforward persons in my neighborhood. If a father has
stolen a sheep, the son will give evidence against him."

"Straightforward people in my neighborhood are different from those,"
said Confucius. "The father will hold a thing secret on his son's
behalf, and the son does the same for his father. They are on their
way to becoming straightforward."

Fan Ch[']i was asking him about duty to one's fellow-men. "Be
courteous," he replied, "in your private sphere; be serious in any
duty you take in hand to do; be leal-hearted in your intercourse with
others. Even though you were to go amongst the wild tribes, it would
not be right for you to neglect these duties."

In answer to Tsz-kung, who asked, "how he would characterize one who
could fitly be called 'learned official,'" the Master said, "He may be
so-called who in his private life is affected with a sense of his own
unworthiness, and who, when sent on a mission to any quarter of the
empire, would not disgrace his prince's commands."

"May I presume," said his questioner, "to ask what sort you would put
next to such?"

"Him who is spoken of by his kinsmen as a dutiful son, and whom the
folks of his neighborhood call 'good brother.'"

"May I still venture to ask whom you would place next in order?"

"Such as are sure to be true to their word, and effective in their
work--who are given to hammering, as it were, upon one note--of
inferior calibre indeed, but fit enough, I think, to be ranked next."

"How would you describe those who are at present in the government
service?"

"Ugh! mere peck and panier men!--not worth taking into the reckoning."

Once he remarked, "If I cannot get _via media_ men to impart
instruction to, then I must of course take the impetuous and
undisciplined! The impetuous ones will at least go forward and lay
hold on things; and the undisciplined have at least something in them
which needs to be brought out."

"The Southerners," said he, "have the proverb, 'The man who sticks not
to rule will never make a charm-worker or a medical man.'
Good!--'Whoever is intermittent in his practise of virtue will live to
be asham