opher who
lived at the same time with Confucius, though half a century older;
Confucius met him, as we hear in the _Analects_, and spoke of him
with great respect. His work, the _Tao-te-king_, has been preserved,
and though few profess to understand it, a general idea of his
thought may be gathered from it. Lao, like Confucius, founds on the
existing system; he quotes largely from older works, and there are
sayings common to both the sages. Metaphysical thought, however,
which with Confucius was implied rather than reasoned out, here
stands in the forefront. Lao's system is a philosophy applied
practically. Tao, the ruling idea of the system, from which both it
and the religion which followed it are named, is variously rendered
Reason, Nature, the Way; the last is the nearest, though by no means
a full rendering of it. By the manifold operations attributed to it,
it reminds us of the Indian Brahma, and the riddle of Lao's obscurity
has been proposed to be solved by the supposition that he was dealing
with a doctrine imported from India which Chinese forms of speech
could but imperfectly express.[6] Tao is not personal, but something
that precedes all persons, all particular beings. It was there before
heaven was; all things are from it and return to it at last. It is
the principle at the root and the beginning of all things, by which
they move, without haste or struggle, ambition or confusion. Existing
first absolute and undeveloped, it has now been expressed; men can
know it, and the secret of all goodness, all success both for the
individual and for the state, is to know Tao and live in it. This
makes a man superior to all rules and conventions; at home with
himself he is superior to the world; he does not dissipate his
energies in learning a great number of outward things, but acts
spontaneously from an inner impulse. In this way the philosopher
looked for a return of society to simpler manners; he even imagined
that men might consent to put away the material arts of which they
thought so much, and content themselves with living according to
wisdom and being governed by the wisest.

[Footnote 6: "Lao-Tzeu et le Brahmanisme," by E. Guimet in the
_Verhandlungen_ of the Basal Conference, 1904.]

The moral precepts of Lao are often of singular beauty and show a
much deeper insight than the cold teaching of Confucius. Lao taught
the golden rule: "Recompense injury," he said, "with kindness."
Confucius, on being asked a