thought recalcitrant against his feeling of
good-will towards his fellow-men. The others may attain to this for a
day or for a month, but there they end."

When asked by Ki K[']ang whether Tsz-lu was fit to serve the
government, the Master replied, "Tsz-lu is a man of decision: what
should prevent him from serving the government?"

Asked the same question respecting Tsz-kung and Yen Yu he answered
similarly, pronouncing Tsz-kung to be a man of perspicacity, and Yen
Yu to be one versed in the polite arts.

When the head of the Ki family sent for Min Tsz-k[']ien to make him
governor of the town of Pi, that disciple said, "Politely decline for
me. If the offer is renewed, then indeed I shall feel myself obliged
to go and live on the further bank of the Wan."

Peh-niu had fallen ill, and the Master was inquiring after him. Taking
hold of his hand held out from the window, he said, "It is taking him
off! Alas, his appointed time has come! Such a man, and to have such
an illness!"

Of Hwui, again: "A right worthy man indeed was he! With his simple
wooden dish of rice, and his one gourd-basin of drink, away in his
poor back lane, in a condition too grievous for others to have
endured, he never allowed his cheery spirits to droop. Aye, a right
worthy soul was he!"

"It is not," Yen Yu once apologized, "that I do not take pleasure in
your doctrines; it is that I am not strong enough." The Master
rejoined, "It is when those who are not strong enough have made some
moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up; but you are
now drawing your own line for yourself."

Addressing Tsz-hia, the Master said, "Let your scholarship be that of
gentlemen, and not like that of common men."

When Tsz-yu became governor of Wu-shing, the Master said to him, "Do
you find good men about you?" The reply was, "There is Tan-t[']ai
Mieh-ming, who when walking eschews by-paths, and who, unless there be
some public function, never approaches my private residence."

"Mang Chi-fan," said the Master, "is no sounder of his own praises.
During a stampede he was in the rear, and as they were about to enter
the city gate he whipped up his horses, and said, ''Twas not my daring
made me lag behind. My horses would not go.'"

_Obiter dicta_ of the Master:--

"Whoever has not the glib utterance of the priest T[']o, as well as
the handsomeness of Prince Chau of Sung, will find it hard to keep out
of harm's way in the present age.

"Who can g