visited Lao-tsze, who was then an old man. Confucius often
quotes his great contemporary and calls himself a follower of Lao-tsze.
The difference, however, between the men is marked. Lao-tsze's teachings
are full of metaphysics and strange and mystical curiosities, while
Confucius is always simple, lucid and practical.

* * * * *

Confucius has been revered for twenty centuries, revered simply as a
man, not as a god or as a divinely appointed savior. He offered no
reward of heaven, nor did he threaten non-believers with hell. He
claimed no special influence nor relationship to the Unseen. In all his
teachings he was singularly open, frank and free from all mystery or
concealment. In reference to the supernatural he was an agnostic. He
often said, "I do not know." He was always an inquirer, always a
student, always open to conviction. History affords no instance of
another individual who has been so well and so long loved, who still
holds his place, and who, so far as his reasoning went, is unassailed
and unassailable. Even the two other great religions in China that rival
Confucianism--Buddhism and Taoism (the religion of Lao-tsze)--do not
renounce Confucius: they merely seek to amend and augment him.

During his lifetime Confucius made many enemies by his habit of frankly
pointing out the foibles of society and the wrongs visited upon the
people by officials who pretended to serve them. Of hypocrisy,
selfishness, vanity, pretense, he was severe in his denunciation.

Politicians at that time had the very modern habit of securing the
office and then leaving all the details of the work to menials, they
themselves pocketing the perquisites. As Minister of State, Confucius
made himself both feared and detested on account of his habit of
summoning the head of the office before him and questioning him
concerning his duties. In fact, this insistence that those paid by the
State should work for the State caused a combination to be formed
against him, which finally brought about his deposition and exile, two
things which troubled him but little, since one gave him leisure and the
other opportunity for travel.

The personal followers of Confucius did not belong to the best society;
but immediately after his death, many who during his life had scorned
the man made haste to profess his philosophy and decorate their houses
with his maxims. Humanity is about the same, whether white or yellow,
the r