o out but by that door? Why walks no one by these guiding
principles?

"Where plain naturalness is more in evidence than polish, we
have--the man from the country. Where polish is more in evidence than
naturalness, we have--the town scribe. It is when naturalness and
polish are equally evident that we have the ideal man.

"The life of a man is--his rectitude. Life without it--such may you
have the good fortune to avoid!

"They who know it are not as those who love it, nor they who love it
as those who rejoice in it--that is, have the fruition of their love
for it.

"To the average man, and those above the average, it is possible to
discourse on higher subjects; to those from the average downwards, it
is not possible."

Fan Ch[']i put a query about wisdom. The Master replied, "To labor for
the promoting of righteous conduct among the people of the land; to be
serious in regard to spiritual beings, and to hold aloof from
them;--this may be called wisdom."

To a further query, about philanthropy, he replied, "Those who possess
that virtue find difficulty with it at first, success later.

"Men of practical knowledge," he said, "find their gratification among
the rivers of the lowland, men of sympathetic social feeling find
theirs among the hills. The former are active and bustling, the latter
calm and quiet. The former take their day of pleasure, the latter look
to length of days."

Alluding to the States of Ts[']i and Lu, he observed, that Ts[']i, by
one change, might attain to the condition of Lu; and that Lu, by one
change, might attain to good government.

An exclamation of the Master (satirizing the times, when old terms
relating to government were still used while bereft of their old
meaning):--"A quart, and not a quart! _quart_, indeed! _quart_, indeed!"

Tsai Wo, a disciple, put a query. Said he, "Suppose a philanthropic
person were told, 'There's a fellow-creature down in the well!' Would
he go down after him?"

"Why should he really do so?" answered the Master. "The good man, or a
superior man might be induced to go, but not to go down. He may be
misled, but not befooled."

"The superior man," said he, "with his wide study of books, and
hedging himself round by the Rules of Propriety, is not surely, after
all that, capable of overstepping his bounds."

Once when the Master had had an interview with Nan-tsz, which had
scandalized his disciple Tsz-lu, he uttered the solemn adjuration, "If
I have do