conveniently translated by "the Way."

Fearing, however, some confusion from the use of this term, the
philosopher was careful to explain that "the way which can be walked
upon is not the eternal Way." But he never tells us definitely what the
Way is. In one place he says it cannot find expression in words; in
another he says, "Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not
know."

The latter saying was used by a famous poet as a weapon of ridicule
against the treatise. "If those who know," he argued, "do not tell, how
comes it that Lao Tzu put his own knowledge into a book of five thousand
and more words?"

We are assured, however, by Lao Tzu that "just as without going out of
doors we can know the whole world, so without looking out of window we
can know the Way."

Again we have, "Without moving, you shall know; without looking, you
shall see; without doing, you shall achieve."

Meanwhile, we are left to gather from isolated maxims some shadowy idea
of what Lao Tzu meant by the Way.

It seems to have been a perpetual accommodation of self to one's
surroundings, with the minimum of effort, all progress being spontaneous
and in the line of least resistance.

From this it is a mere step to doing nothing at all, the famous doctrine
of Inaction, with all its paradoxes, which is really the criterion of
Lao Tzu's philosophy and will be always associated with Lao Tzu's name.

Thus he says, "Perfect virtue does nothing, and consequently there is
nothing which it does not do."

Again, "The softest things in the world overcome the hardest; that which
has no substance enters where there is no crevice."

"Leave all things to take their natural courses, and do not interfere."

"Only he who does nothing for his life's sake can be truly said to value
his life."

"Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish,"--do not overdo
it. Do not try to force results. The well-known Greek injunction, "not
to go beyond one's destiny," ouk huper moron, might well have fallen from
Lao Tzu's lips.

All this is the Way, which Lao Tzu tells us is "like the drawing of a
bow,--it brings down the high and exalts the low," reducing all things
to a uniform plane.

He also says that if the Way prevails on earth, horses will be used for
agricultural purposes; if the Way does not prevail, they will be used
for war.

Many of Lao Tzu's sayings are mere moral maxims for use in everyday
life.

"Put yourself behind, and the world