ipple of effect," we read, "thou shalt
let run its course." But in the ideal world he erected a barrier
against them. He set up a colossal statue with arms outthrown to
bar the egress; the statue of Confucius preaching the Balanced
Life. With time it materialized, so to say, and fell into place.
You can never certainly stop the gates of hell,--in this stage of
our evolution. But perhaps as nearly as it can be done, he did
it. Rome fell, and Christendom made a mess of things; it has
never yet achieved that union which is the first condition of
true civilization. But China, older than Rome, despite her sins
and vicissitudes, has made a shift to stand. I shall come to
comparing the two histories presently; then you will see.
When the pralaya came on her, and the forces of life all went
elsewhere--as they do and must from every civilization in their
season,--China lost two of her treasures: Plenydd's vision, and
Alawn's gift of song, were taken from her. But this stability;
these Gloves of Gwron; this instinct for middle courses and the
balance, this Doctrine of the Mean and love of plain sane doings:
she has retained enough of this to keep her in being. And it was
K'ung Ch'iu of Lu that gave it to her. Shall we not call him
Such a One as only the Gods send?

Someone told me the other day what he had seen a couple of
Chinamen do in a Californian garden. They had a flower-bed
to plant, about forty feet long; and each a basket of seedlings
to plant it with, and a slip of wood for a model, with mystic
unintelligible signs inscribed thereon: WELCOME HOME in English
capitals. One went to one end of the bed and the other to the
other, and they began their planting. They made no measurements
or calculations; used no rod or line; but just worked ahead
till they met in the middle. When that happened, and the job was
done, the bed was inscribed, in perfectly formed and proportioned
English capitals made of young plants, WELCOME HOME. There was
no crowding or omission. To account for it you have twenty-four
centuries of Confucianism,--of Katherine Tingley's doctrine of
Middle Lines, the Balanced Life.

It is a very small thing; but it may help us to understand.

XII. TALES FROM A TAOIST TEACHER

Confucius died in 478: the year, it may be noted, in which
Athens attained her hegemony: or just when the Greek Cycle
thirteen decades was opening. Looking backward thirteen decades
from that, we come to 608