n officer of Wei, came to consult him as to the best
means of attacking the force of another officer with whom he was engaged
in a feud. Confucius, disgusted at being consulted on such a subject,
professed ignorance, and prepared to leave the state, saying as he went
away: "The bird chooses its tree; the tree does not choose the bird." At
this juncture Ke K'ang's envoys arrived, and without hesitation he
accepted the invitation they brought. On arriving at Loo, he presented
himself at court, and in reply to a question of the duke Gae on the
subject of government, threw out a strong hint that the duke might do
well to offer him an appointment. "Government," he said, "consists in
the right choice of ministers." To the same question put by Ke K'ang he
replied, "Employ the upright and put aside the crooked, and thus will
the crooked be made upright."

At this time Ke K'ang was perplexed how to deal with the prevailing
brigandage. "If you, sir, were not avaricious, though you might offer
rewards to induce people to steal, they would not." This answer
sufficiently indicates the estimate formed by Confucius of Ke K'ang
and therefore of the duke Gae, for so entirely were the two of one mind
that the acts of Ke K'ang appear to have been invariably indorsed by the
duke. It was plainly impossible that Confucius could serve under such a
regime, and instead, therefore, of seeking employment, he retired to his
study and devoted himself to the completion of his literary undertaking.

He was now sixty-nine years of age, and if a man is to be considered
successful only when he succeeds in realizing the dream of his life, he
must be deemed to have been unfortunate. Endowed by nature with a large
share of reverence, a cold rather than a fervid disposition, and a
studious mind, and reared in the traditions of the ancient kings, whose
virtuous achievements obtained an undue prominence by the obliteration
of all their faults and failures, he believed himself capable of
effecting far more than it was possible for him or any other man to
accomplish. In the earlier part of his career, he had in Loo an
opportunity given him for carrying his theories of government into
practice, and we have seen how they failed to do more than produce a
temporary improvement in the condition of the people under his immediate
rule. But he had a lofty and steady confidence in himself and in the
principles which he professed, which prevented his accepting the only