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LECTURE IV.
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'How calm it is! how free!
'It lives alone, it changes not.
'It moves everywhere, but it never suffers. 'We may look on it as the Mother of the Universe. 'I, I know not its name.
'In order to give it a title, I call it Tao (the Way). 'When I try to give it a name, I call it Great. 'After calling it Great, I call it Fugitive. 'After calling it Fugitive, I call it Distant.
'After calling it Distant, I say it comes back to me.' Need I say that Greek and Roman writers abound in the most exalted sentiments on religion and morality, in spite of their mythology and in spite of their idolatry? When Plato says that men ought to strive after likeness with God, do you think that he thought of Jupiter, or Mars, or Mercury? When another poet exclaimed that the conscience is a god for all men, was he so very far from a knowledge of the true God?
On African ground the hieroglyphic and hieratic texts of the ancient Egyptians show the same strange mixture of sublime and childish, nay worse than childish, thoughts to which all students of primitive religion have become accustomed, nay from which they must learn to draw some of their most important lessons. It is easy to appreciate what is simple, and true, and beautiful in the Sacred Books of the East, but those who are satisfied with such gems, are like botanists who should care for roses
confus according to the Chinese commentaries by ce qu'il est impossible de distinguer clairement. Si par hazard on m'interroge sur cet être (le Tao), je répondrai: Il n'a ni commencement, ni fin,' etc. See, however, Dr. J. Legge, 'The Religions of China,' 1880, p. 213.
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