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58
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXII.
Water, and ascended the height of the End of Doubt 1, where he saw Heedless Blurter, to whom he put the same questions, and who replied, 'Ah! I know, and will tell you. But while he was about to speak, he forgot what he wanted to say.
Knowledge, (again) receiving no answer to his questions, returned to the palace of the Ti?, where he saw Hwang-Tis, and put the questions to him. Hwang-Ti said, “To exercise no thought and no anxious, consideration is the first step towards knowing the Tâo; to dwell nowhere and do nothing is the first step towards resting in the Tâo; to start from nowhere and pursue no path is the first step towards making the Tâo your own.'
Knowledge then asked Hwang-Ti, saying, 'I and you know this; those two did not know it; which of us is right ?' The reply was, ' Dumb Inaction 3 is truly right; Heedless Blurter has an appearance of being so; I and you are not near being so. (As it is said), “Those who know (the Tâo) do not speak of it; those who speak of it do not know it 4;" and "Hence the sage conveys his instructions without the use of speech 4.” The Tâo cannot be made ours by constraint; its characteristics will not come to us (at our call). Benevolence may be practised; Righteousness may be partially attended to; by Ceremonies men impose on one another. Hence it
· See note 3, on preceding page.
9 Tî might seem to be used here for 'God,' but its juxtaposition with Hwang-Ti is against our translating it so.
s See note 2, on preceding page.
• See the Tâo Teh King, chaps. 56 and 2. Kwang-sze is quoting, no doubt, these two passages, as he vaguely intimates I think by the #, with which the sentence commences.
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