________________
230
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXXIII.
very conspicuous throughout the kingdom, and was considered an able debater. All other debaters vied with one another and delighted in similar exhibitions. (They would say), · There are feathers in an egg' 'A fowl has three feet.' "The kingdom belongs to Ying.' 'A dog might have been (called) a sheep.' 'A tadpole has a tail.' 'Fire is not hot.'
A mountain gives forth a voice.' 'A wheel does not tread on the ground.' 'The eye does not see.'
The finger indicates, but needs not touch, (the object). Where you come to may not be the end.' •The tortoise is longer than the snake.' "The carpenter's square is not square.' 'A compass should not itself be round.' 'A chisel does not surround its handle. The shadow of a flying bird does not (itself) move. Swift as the arrowhead is, there is a time when it is neither flying nor at rest.' 'A dog is not a hound.' 'A bay horse and a black ox are three.' 'A white dog is black.' 'A motherless colt never had a mother. 'If from a stick a foot long you every day take the half of it, in a myriad ages it will not be exhausted.'—It was in this way that the debaters responded to Hui Shih, all their lifetime, without coming to an end.
Hwan Twan and Kung-sun Lung? were true members of this class. By their specious representations they threw a glamour over men's minds and altered their ideas. They vanquished men in argument, but could not subdue their minds, only keeping them in the enclosure of their sophistry. Hui Shih daily used his own knowledge and the arguments of others to propose strange theses to all debaters ;
· Elsewhere unknown.
* See Book XVII, par. 10.
Digitized by Google
