high
tribute he was paying him. It is because he was that: the hero,
the flaming idealist: that his figure shines out so clear and
splendidly. His outer attempts--to make a Man of Marquis This
or Duke That, and a model state of Lu or Wei--these were
but carvings in rotten wood, foredoomed to quick failure.
All the material of the world was rotten wood: he might have
learned that lesson;--only there are lessons that Such a One
never learns. Well; we in turn may learn a lesson from him:
applicable now. The rotten wood crumbled under his hands time
and again: under his bodily hands;--but it made no difference to
him. He went on and on, still hoping to begin his life's work,
and never recognising failure; and by reason and virtue of that,
the hands of his spirit were carving, not in rotten wood, but in
precious jade and adamant spiritual, to endure forever. On those
inner planes he was building up his Raja-Yoga; which time saw to
it should materialize and redeem his race presently. Confucius
in the brief moment of his victory illuminated the world indeed;
but Confucius in the long years of his defeat has bowed the
hearts of twenty-five centuries of the Black-haired People. We
can see this now; I wonder did he see it then? I mean, had that
certain knowledge and clear vision in his conscious mind, that
was possessed in the divinity of his Soul--as it is in every
Soul. I imagine not; for in his last days he--the personality--
could give way and weep over the utter failure of his efforts.
One loves him the more for it: one thinks his grandeur only the
more grand. It is a very human and at last a very pathetic
figure--this Man that did save his people.

Due west from Lu, and on the road thence to Honanfu the Chow
capital, lay the Duchy of Wei; whither now he turned his steps.
He had no narrow patriotism: if his own Lu rejected him, he
might still save this foreign state, and through it, perhaps, All
the Chinas. He was at this time one of the most famous men
alive; and his first experience in Wei might have been thought
to augur well. On the frontier he was met by messengers from a
local Wei official, begging for their master an interview:--
"Every illustrious stranger has granted me one; let me not ask
it of you, Sir, in vain." Confucius complied; was conducted to
the yamen, and went in, leaving his disciples outside. To these
the magistrate came out, while the Master was still resting
within.--"Sirs," s