Page:An analysis of religious belief (1877).djvu/571

 Psalms of trust in God, of pious belief in his protection, and of sensibility to his all-embracing knowledge, we may quote the language of a Chinese monarch in one of the Odes of the She King. The first six lines are, it appears, held by the current interpretation in China to contain the admonition addressed by the ministers to the king, and the last six the king's reply. But we may more reasonably suppose, with Dr. Legge, that the whole Ode is spoken by the king himself:—

"Let me be reverent, let me be reverent [in attending to my duties]; [The way of] Heaven is evident, And its appointment is not easily [preserved]. Let me not say that It is high aloft above me. It ascends and descends about our doings; It daily inspects us wherever we are.

I am [but as] a little child, Without intelligence to be reverently [attentive to my duties]; But by daily progress and monthly advance, I will learn to hold fast the gleams [of knowledge], till I arrive at bright intelligence. Assist me to bear the burden [of my position], And show me how to display a virtuous conduct."

We may fairly place this simple expression of the author's desire to do his duty, and of his reverential consciousness that Heaven is ever about us and "inspects us wherever we are," beside the words attributed to David:—

"O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou winnowest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways" (Psalm cxxxix. 1-3).

We need not dwell upon the Proverbs, traditionally ascribed to Solomon, but scarcely worthy of the renowned wisdom of that monarch. Some of them are indeed shrewd and well expressed; others are commonplace; and others again display3.]