it impossible; and after I have exhausted my powers,
there seems to be something standing straight up in front of me, and
though I have the mind to make towards it I make no advance at all."

Once when the Master was seriously ill, Tsz-lu induced the other
disciples to feign they were high officials acting in his service.
During a respite from his malady the Master exclaimed, "Ah! how long
has Tsz-lu's conduct been false? Whom should I delude, if I were to
pretend to have officials under me, having none? Should I deceive
Heaven? Besides, were I to die, I would rather die in the hands of
yourselves, my disciples, than in the hands of officials. And though I
should fail to have a grand funeral over me, I should hardly be left
on my death on the public highway, should I?"

Tsz-kung once said to him, "Here is a fine gem. Would you guard it
carefully in a casket and store it away, or seek a good price for it
and sell it?" "Sell it, indeed," said the Master--"that would I; but I
should wait for the bidder."

The Master protested he would "go and live among the nine wild tribes."

"A rude life," said some one;--"how could you put up with it?"

"What rudeness would there be," he replied, "if a 'superior man' was
living in their midst?"

Once he remarked, "After I came back from Wei to Lu the music was put
right, and each of the Festal Odes and Hymns was given its appropriate
place and use."

"Ah! which one of these following," he asked on one occasion, "are to
be found exemplified in me--proper service rendered to superiors when
abroad; duty to father and elder brother when at home; duty that
shrinks from no exertion when dear ones die; and keeping free from
the confusing effects of wine?"

Standing once on the bank of a mountain stream, he said (musingly),
"Like this are those that pass away--no cessation, day or night!"

Other sayings:--

"Take an illustration from the making of a hill. A simple basketful is
wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I stop short.

"Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground. Suppose again
just one basketful is left, when the work has so progressed. There I
desist!

"Ah! it was Hwui, was it not? who, when I had given him his lesson,
was the unflagging one!

"Alas for Hwui! I saw him ever making progress. I never saw him
stopping short.

"Blade, but no bloom--or else bloom, but no produce; aye, that is the
way with some!

"Reverent regard is due to youth. Ho