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PT. II. SECT. VII.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-SZE.
acquainted with their contents. With seventy-two rulers, all offenders against the right, I have discoursed about the ways of the former kings, and set forth the examples of (the dukes of) Kâu and Shâo; and not one of them has adopted (my views) and put them in practice :-how very difficult it is to prevail on such men, and to make clear the path to be pursued !'
Lâo-zze replied, 'It is fortunate that you have not met with a ruler fitted to rule the age. Those six writings are å description of the vestiges left by the former kings, but do not tell how they made such vestiges; and what you, Sir, speak about are still only the vestiges. But vestiges are the prints left by the shoes ;-are they the shoes that produced them? A pair of white herons look at each other with pupils that do not move, and impregnation takes place; the male insect emits its buzzing sound in the air above, and the female responds from the air below, and impregnation takes place; the creatures called lêi are both male and female, and each individual breeds of itself. The nature cannot be altered; the conferred constitution cannot be changed; the march of the seasons cannot be arrested ; the Tâo cannot be stopped. If you get the Tâo, there is no effect that cannot be produced; if you miss it, there is no effect that can
Confucius (after this) did not go out, till at the end of three months he went again to see Lâo Tan, and said, 'I have got it. Ravens produce their young by hatching ; fishes by the communication of their milt; the small-waisted wasp by transforma
1 Where had Lâo-zze or his author learned his zoology?
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