er. This is much better than the possession of
mere courage and strength. Has Your Highness no mind to acquire
such a secret as this?"

The Prince confessed that, on the contray, he was most anxious to
learn it.

"It is nothing else than the teachings of Confucius and Mo Ti,"
said Hui Yang.

A main idea of Taoism--one with which the Confucius of orthodox
Confucianism did not concern himself--is the possibility of
creating within one's outer and mortal an inner and immortal
self; by subduing desire, by sublimating away all impurities, by
concentration. The seed of that Immortality is hidden in us;
the seed of mastery of the inner and outer worlds. Faith is the
key. Shang Ch'iu K'ai, whose "faith had made him whole," walked
through fire. "Whoso hath faith as a grain of mustard-seed,"
said Jesus, can move mountains. It sounds as if he had been
reading the _Book of Liehtse;_ which is at pains to show how the
thing is done. T'ai-hsing and Wang-wu, the mountains, stood not
where they stand now, but in the south of the Chi district and
north of Ho-yang. I like the tale well, and shall tell it for
its naive Chinesity. The Simpleton of the North Mountain, an old
man of ninety, dwelt opposite to them, and was vexed in spirit
because their northern flanks blocked the way for travelers, who
had to go round. So he called his family together and broached a
plan.--"Let us put forth our utmost strength and clear away this
obstacle," said he; "let us cut right through the mountains
till we come to Han-yin." All agreed except his wife. "My
goodman," said she, "has not the strength to sweep away a
dung-hill, let alone such mountains as T'ai-hsing and Wang-wu.
Besides, where will you put the earth and stones?" They answered
that they would throw them on the promontory of P'o-hai. So the
old man, followed by his son and grandson, sallied forth with
their pickaxes, and began hewing away at the rocks and cutting up
the soil, and carting it away in baskets to the promontory. A
widow who lived near by had a little boy who, though he was only
just shedding his milk-teeth, came skipping along to give them
what help he could. Engrossed in their toil they never went home
except once at the turn of the season.

The Wise Old Man of the River-bend burst out laughing and urged
them to stop. "Great indeed is your witlessness!" said he.
"With the poor remaining strength of your declining years you
will not succeed in removin