Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/210

184 which the tablets or leaves were strung together. His disciples amounted to three thousand, amongst whom seventy-two were most distinguished. His last work was, the history of his own times, wherein he gave his opinion so decidedly on the conduct of different rulers, that he made sycophants and tyrants tremble. About this time his countrymen discovered an unicorn in the woods, which Confucius considered as indicative of his speedy removal; and wiping away the tears, he exclaimed, "my teaching is at an end!" In the forty-first year of King-wang, B. C. 477, Confucius died; when the prince of Loo composed an elegy on his memory, praising his genius, and lamenting his end. His disciples said, "whilst he was alive you did not employ him, and now that he is dead you lament him; how inconsistent!"

Thus it appears, that Confucius, during the greatest part of his life, was engaged in political affairs; and only in his declining years, devoted himself to the establishment of a school of philosophy; his system will therefore be more likely to refer to politics than religion, and the pursuit of temporal, rather than eternal good. In fact, it is a misnomer to call his system a religion, as it has little or nothing to do with theology, and is merely a scheme of ethics and politics, horn which things spiritual and divine are uniformly excluded. In treating of the government of a country, Confucius compared it to the management of a family, and grounds the whole on the due control of one's self, and the right management of the heart. He expressly lays down the golden rule, of doing to others as we should they should do unto us; and lays the foundation of moral conduct in the principle of excusing and