lination to
go.

Tsz-lu (seeing this) said to him, "In former days, sir, I have heard
you say, 'A superior man will not enter the society of one who does
not that which is good in matters concerning himself; and this man is
in revolt, with Chung-mau in his possession; if you go to him, how
will the case stand?"

"Yes," said the Master, "those are indeed my words; but is it not
said, 'What is hard may be rubbed without being made thin,' and
'White may be stained without being made black'?--I am surely not a
gourd! How am I to be strung up like that kind of thing--and live
without means?"

"Tsz-lu," said the Master, "you have heard of the six words with their
six obfuscations?"

"No," said he, "not so far."

"Sit down, and I will tell you them. They are these six virtues, cared
for without care for any study about them:--philanthropy, wisdom,
faithfulness, straightforwardness, courage, firmness. And the six
obfuscations resulting from not liking to learn about them are,
respectively, these:--fatuity, mental dissipation, mischievousness,
perversity, insubordination, impetuosity."

"My children," said he once, "why does no one of you study the
Odes?--They are adapted to rouse the mind, to assist observation, to
make people sociable, to arouse virtuous indignation. They speak of
duties near and far--the duty of ministering to a parent, the duty of
serving one's prince; and it is from them that one becomes conversant
with the names of many birds, and beasts, and plants, and trees."

To his son Pih-yu he said, "Study you the Odes of Chow and the South,
and those of Shau and the South. The man who studies not these is, I
should say, somewhat in the position of one who stands facing a wall!"

"'Etiquette demands it.' 'Etiquette demands it,' so people plead,"
said he; "but do not these hankerings after jewels and silks indeed
demand it? Or it is, 'The study of Music requires it'--'Music requires
it'; but do not these predilections for bells and drums require it?"

Again, "They who assume an outward appearance of severity, being
inwardly weak, may be likened to low common men; nay, are they not
somewhat like thieves that break through walls and steal?"

Again, "The plebeian kind of respect for piety is the very pest of
virtue."

Again, "Listening on the road, and repeating in the lane--this is
abandonment of virtue."

"Ah, the low-minded creatures!" he exclaimed. "How is it possible
indeed to serve one's prince in