employ should belong to the nobility. This
giving a title or degree to men of skill--men who can do things--we
regard as essentially a modern idea.

China, I believe, is the first country in the world to use the threads
of a moth or worm for fabrics. The patience and care and inventive skill
required in first making silk were very great. But it gives us an index
to invention when we hear that Confucius regarded the making of linen,
using the fiber of a plant, as a greater feat than utilizing the strands
made by the silkworm. Confucius had a sort of tender sentiment toward
the moth, similar to the sentiments which our vegetarian friends have
toward killing animals for food. Confucius wore linen in preference to
silk, for sentimental reasons. The silkworm dies at his task of making
himself a cocoon, so to evolve in a winged joy, but falls a victim of
man's cupidity. Likewise, Confucius would not drink milk from a cow
until her calf was weaned, because to do so were taking an unfair
advantage of the maternal instincts of the cow. It will thus be seen
that Confucius had a very fair hold on the modern idea which we call
"Monism," or "The One." He, too, said, "All is one." In his attitude
toward all living things he was ever gentle and considerate.

No other prophet so much resembles Confucius in doctrine as Socrates.
But Confucius does not suffer from the comparison. He had a beauty,
dignity and grace of person which the great Athenian did not possess.
Socrates was more or less of a buffoon, and to many in Athens he was a
huge joke--a town fool. Confucius combined the learning and graces of
Plato with the sturdy, practical commonsense of Socrates. No one ever
affronted or insulted him; many did not understand him, but he met
prince or pauper on terms of equality.

In his travels Confucius used often to meet recluses or monks--men who
had fled the world in order to become saints. For these men Confucius
had more pity than respect. "The world's work is difficult, and to live
in a world of living, striving and dying men and women requires great
courage and great love. Now we can not all run away, and for some to
flee from humanity and to find solace in solitude is only another name
for weakness."

This sounds singularly like our Ralph Waldo who says, "It is easy in the
world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live
after our own; but the Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with per