unded. All sorts of socialisms were in the
air, raucously bellowed by would-be reformers. A "loud barbarian
from the south" (as Mencius called him--I do not know who he was)
was proclaiming that property should be abolished, and all goods
held in common. One Yang Chu was yelling universal egoism:
"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Against him, one Mo
Ti had been preaching universal altruism;--but I judge, not too
sensibly, and without appeal to philosophy or mysticism. Thought
of all kinds was in a ferment, and the world filled with the
confused noise of its expression; clear voices were needed, to
restate the message of the Teachers of old.

Then Mencius arose to speak for Confucius in this China so much
further progressed along the Gadarene road. A strong and
brilliant man, he took the field strongly and brilliantly, and
filled the courts of dukes and kings with a roll of Confucian
drums. Confucius, as I have tried to show you, had all Mysticism
divinely behind and backing him, though he said little about it;
Mencius, I think, had none. Mencius remade a Confucius of his
own, with the mystical elements lacking. He saw in him only a
social reformer and teacher of ethics; and it is the easiest
thing in the world to see Confucius only through Mencian spectacles.

I would not fall into the mistake of undervaluing Mencius. He
was a very great man; and the work he did for China was
enormous, and indispensable. You may call him something between
the St. Paul and the Constantine of Confucianism. Unlike
Constantine, he was not a sovereign, to establish the system;
but he hobnobbed with sovereigns, and never allowed them to think
him their inferior; and it was he who made of Confucianism a
system that could be established. Unlike St. Paul, he did not
develop the inner side of his Master's teachings; but he so
popularized them as to ensure their triumph. He took the ideas
of Confucius, such of them as lay within his own statesmanlike
and practical scope of vision, restated and formulated them, and
made of them what became the Chinese Constitution. A brave and
honest thinker, essentially a man of action in thought, he never
consciously deteriorated or took away from Confucius' doctrine.
It is more as if some great President or Prime Minister, at some
future time, should suddenly perceive that H.P. Blavatsky had
brought that which would save his nation; and proceed to apply
that saving thing, as best he