Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/337

325 RELIGION OF LAO-TZE. 325 tamed in a work pompously entitled, the " Book of the Way, and of Virtue." * This Lao-tze was in frequent communication with Confucius, but it is difficult to know what was the opinion of the head of the Religion of the Lettered concerning the doctrine of the patriarch of the Doctors of Reason. One day he went to pay him a visit, and when he came back to his disciples, remained three days without speaking a word. Tseu-Kong was sur- prised at this silence, and asked its cause. " When," said Confucius, " I see a man making use of his thoughts to escape from me like a bird who flies, I arrange mine like a bow armed with its arrow to pierce him, and I never fail to reach him and master him. When I see a man making use of his thoughts to escape from me like an agile stag, I arrange mine like a hunting dog to pursue him, and I never fail to over- take and seize him. When a man makes use of his thoughts to slip away from me like a fish into the deep, I arrange mine as the fisherman does the hook, and I never fail to get him into my power. But as to the dragon that rises into the clouds and soars into the air, I cannot pursue him. This day I have seen Lao- tze, and he is like the dragon. At his voice my mouth remained wide open, and I was not able to shut it ; my tongue came out with astonishment, and I have never been able to draw it back again ! My soul was plunged into perplexity, and has not been able to recover its former tranquillity." Whatever may be said of the philosophical ideas of Lao-tze, his disciples have never enjoyed great popularity. it, which, like all his works, is of rare excellence. y 3
 * Tao-te-King. M. Stanislas Julien has given a translation of