Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/50

38 the hillside; but you would hardly speak of such results as the nature of water. They are the results, of course, of a force majeure. And so it is when the nature of man is diverted towards evil.'

"Kao Tzu said, 'That which comes with life is nature.'

"Mencius replied, 'Do you mean that there is such a thing as nature in the abstract, just as there is whiteness in the abstract?'

"'I do,' answered Kao Tzŭ.

"'Just, for instance,' continued Mencius,'as the whiteness of a feather is the same as the whiteness of snow, or the whiteness of snow as the whiteness of jade?'

"'I do,' answered Kao Tzŭ again.

"'In that case,' retorted Mencius, 'the nature of a dog is the same as that of an ox, and the nature of an ox the same as that of a man.'

"Kao Tzŭ said, 'Eating and reproduction of the species are natural instincts. Charity is subjective and innate; duty towards one's neighbour is objective and acquired. For instance, there is a man who is my senior, and I defer to him as such. Not because any abstract principle of seniority exists subjectively in me, but in the same way that if I see an albino, I recognise him as a white man because he is so objectively to me. Consequently, I say that duty towards one's neighbour is objective or acquired.'

"Mencius replied, 'The cases are not analogous. The whiteness of a white horse is undoubtedly the same as the whiteness of a white man; but the seniority of a horse is not the same as the seniority of a man. Does our duty to our senior begin and end with the fact of his seniority? Or does it not rather consist in the necessity of deferring to him as such?'