de specific cases for others he thought was to cause them to lose
the power of deciding for themselves. When asked what a just man should
do when he was dealing with one absolutely unjust, he said, "He who
wrongs himself sows in his own heart nettles."

And when some of his disciples, after the Socratic method, asked him how
this helped the injured man, he replied, "To be robbed or wronged is
nothing unless you continue to remember it." When pushed still further,
he said, "A man should fight, only when he does so to protect himself
or his family from bodily harm."

Here a questioner asked, "If we are to protect our persons, must we not
learn to fight?"

And the answer comes, "The just man, he who partakes moderately of all
good things, is the only man to fear in a quarrel, for he is without
fear."

Over and over is the injunction in varying phrase, "Abolish
fear--abolish fear!" When pressed to give in one word the secret of a
happy life, he gives a word which we translate, "Equanimity."

The mother of Confucius died during his early manhood. For her he ever
retained the most devout memories.

Before going on a journey he always visited her grave, and on returning,
before he spoke to any one, he did the same. On each anniversary of her
death he ate no food and was not to be seen by his pupils. This filial
piety, which is sometimes crudely and coarsely called "ancestor
worship," is something which for the Western world is rather difficult
to appreciate. But in it there is a subtle, spiritual significance,
suggesting that it is only through our parents that we are able to
realize consciousness or personal contact with Heaven. These parents
loved us into being, cared for us with infinite patience in infancy,
taught us in youth, watched with high hope our budding manhood; and as
reward and recognition for the service rendered us, the least we can do
is to remember them in all our prayers and devotions. The will of Heaven
used these parents for us, therefore parenthood is divine.

That this ancestor worship is beautiful and beneficial is quite
apparent, and rightly understood no one could think of it as
"heathendom." Confucius used to chant the praises of his mother, who
brought him up in poverty, thus giving a close and intimate knowledge of
a thousand things from which princes, used to ease and luxury, are
barred.

So close was he to nature and the plain people that he ordered that all
skilful charioteers in his