moral deflection, of
depravity, and of wild license. When they have thus been involved in
crime, to follow them up and punish them, is to entrap the people. How
can such a thing as entrapping the people be done under the rule of a
benevolent man?"

"Therefore, an intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of the
people, so as to make sure that, above, they shall have sufficient
wherewith to serve their parents, and below, sufficient wherewith to
support their wives and children; that in good years they shall always
be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall not be in
danger of perishing. After this he may urge them, and they will proceed
to what is good, for in this case the people will follow after that with
readiness.

"But now the livelihood of the people is so regulated, that, above, they
have not sufficient wherewith to serve their parents, and, below, they
have not sufficient wherewith to support their wives and children; even
in good years their lives are always embittered, and in bad years they
are in danger of perishing. In such circumstances their only object is
to escape from death, and they are afraid they will not succeed in doing
so--what leisure have they to cultivate propriety and righteousness?

"If your Majesty wishes to carry out a benevolent government, why not
turn back to what is the essential step to its attainment?

"Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five
acres, and persons of fifty years will be able to wear silk. In keeping
fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be
neglected, and persons of seventy years will be able to eat flesh. Let
there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of
the field-allotment of a hundred acres, and the family of eight mouths
will not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be paid to the
teaching in the various schools, with repeated inculcation of the filial
and fraternal duties, and gray-haired men will not be seen upon the
roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their heads. It has never
been that the ruler of a State, where these results were seen, the old
wearing silk and eating flesh, and the black-haired people suffering
neither from hunger nor cold, did not attain to the Royal dignity."

[NOTE: _Books II, III, and IV are omitted_]

[Footnote 1: The title of this book in Chinese is--"King Hwuy of Leang;
in chapters and sentences." Like the Books of the Co