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PT. III. SECT. I.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.
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unite in blessing him as the representative of our departed (whom we worship), and raise an altar to him as we do to the spirit of the grain ? ?' Kăngsang heard of it, kept his face indeed to the south ?, but was dissatisfied.
His disciples thought it strange in him, but he said to them, Why, my disciples, should you think this strange in me? When the airs of spring come forth, all vegetation grows; and, when the autumn arrives, all the previous fruits of the earth are matured. Do spring and autumn have these effects without any adequate cause? The processes of the Great Tâo have been in operation. I have heard that the Perfect man dwells idly in his apartment within its surrounding walls3, and the people get wild and crazy, not knowing how they should repair to him. Now these small people of Wei-lêi in their opinionative way want to present their offerings to me, and place me among such men of ability and virtue. But am I a man to be set up as such a model? It is on this account that I am dissatisfied when I think of the words of Lão Tan.'
2. His disciples said, ' Not so. In ditches eight cubits wide, or even twice as much, big fishes cannot turn their bodies about, but minnows and eels find them sufficient for them 5; on hillocks six or
! I find it difficult to tell what these people wanted to make of Khû, further than what he says himself immediately to his disciples. I cannot think that they wished to make him their ruler.
* This is the proper position for the sovereign in his court, and for the sage as the teacher of the world. Khu accepts it in the latter capacity, but with dissatisfaction.
3 Compare the Li Ki, Bk. XXXVIII, par. 10, et al. • As if he were one with the Tâo.
I do not see the appropriateness here of the Hal in the text.
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