Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/289

Rh the manners of the people, and the undefined, a younger brother of the one that fled to undefined and died there, called him to higher. He was finally appointed of, and there was an end of. Two of his s at the same time obtained influential positions in the two most powerful s of the, and co-operated with him. He signalized his vigour by the punishment of a great and in negotiations with the  of undefined. He laboured to restore to the undefined his proper authority, and as an important step to that end, to dismantle the  where the great chiefs of s maintained themselves like the s of. For a couple of s he seemed to be master of the situation. &ldquo;He strengthened the ruler,&rdquo; it is said, &ldquo;and repressed the s. A transforming went abroad. Dishonesty and dissoluteness hid their heads. Loyalty and good faith became the characteristics of the men, and and docility those of the women. He was the of the people, and flew in s through their mouths.&rdquo; The sky of bright promise was soon overcast. The undefined of undefined and his advisers saw that if Confucius were allowed to prosecute his course, the influence of undefined would become supreme throughout, and undefined would be the first to suffer. A large company of beautiful women, trained in and, and a troop of fine s, were sent to undefined. The bait took; the women were welcomed, and the was neglected. The undefined forgot the lessons of the master, and yielded supinely to the fascinations of the. Confucius felt that he must leave. The neglect of the undefined to send round, according to rule, among the s portions of the after a great, furnished a plausible reason for leaving the. He withdrew, though very unwillingly and slowly, hoping that a change would come over the undefined and his s, and a message of recall be sent to him. But no such message came; and he went forth in his fifty-sixth to a weary period of wandering among various states. It may be well to pause here in the sketch of his life, and consider what his object and hope had been.

A once asked him what he would consider the first thing to be done, if intrusted with the of a. His reply was, &ldquo;The rectification of names.&rdquo; When told that such a thing was wide of the mark, he held to it, and indeed his whole and  was wrapped up in the saying. He had told the undefined of undefined that good obtained when the ruler was ruler, and the  ; when the father was father, and the son son., he considered, was an  of undefined, and was made up of five relationships,—,, , elder brothers and younger, and. There was rule on the one side of the first four, and submission on the other. The rule should be in righteousness and benevolence; the submission in righteousness and sincerity. Between the mutual promotion of  should be the guiding principle. It was true that the duties of the several relations were being continually violated by the passions of, and the had become an. But Confucius had confidence in the preponderating goodness of, and in the power of example in superiors. &ldquo;Not more surely,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;does the bend before the than the masses yield to the will of those above them.&rdquo; Given the model ruler, and the model people would forthwith appear. And he himself could make the model ruler. He could tell the s of the s what they ought to be; and he could point them to examples of perfect in former times,—to the  founders of their own ; to the  undefined, who had founded the previous  of undefined; to the  undefined, who first established a  in ; and to the greater s still who lived in a more distant golden age. With his own lessons and those patterns, any ruler of his, who would listen to him, might reform and renovate his own , and his influence would break forth beyond its limits till the face of the whole should be filled with a multitudinous relation-keeping, well-fed, happy people. &ldquo;If any ruler,&rdquo; he once said, &ldquo;would submit to me as his director for twelve s, I should accomplish something considerable; and in three s I should attain the realization of my hopes.&rdquo; Such were the ideas, the dreams of Confucius. But he had not been able to get the ruler of to listen to him. His sage counsels had melted away before the glance of beauty and the pomps of life.

His professed s amounted to 3000, and among them were between 70 and 80 whom he described as &ldquo;scholars of extraordinary ability.&rdquo; The most attached of them were seldom long away from him. They stood or sat reverently by his side, watched the minutest particulars of his conduct, studied under his direction the,, and of , and treasured up every syllable which dropped from his lips. They have told us how he never at a  perching nor  with a, the creatures not having in such a case a fair chance for their lives; how he conducted himself in  and among rs; how he ate his , and lay in his , and sat in his ; how he rose up before the old man and the ; how he changed countenance when it , and when he saw a grand display of viands at a. He was free and unreserved in his intercourse with them, and was hurt once when they seemed to think that he kept back some of his s from them. Several of them were men of mark among the of the time, and it is the highest testimony to the character of Confucius that he inspired them with feelings of admiration and reverence. It was they who set the example of speaking of him as the greatest of ; it was they who struck the first notes of that which has gone on resounding to the present day. Confucius was, it has been seen, in his fifty-sixth when he left undefined; and thirteen s elapsed ere he returned to it. In this period were comprised his travels among the different, when he hoped, and ever hoped in vain, to meet with some who would accept him as his, and initiate a  that should become the centre of an universal reformation. Several of the s were willing to entertain and support him; but for all that he could say, they would not change their ways.

His first refuge was in undefined, a part of the present undefined, the undefined of which received him kindly; but he was a weak man, ruled by his wife, a woman notorious for her accomplishments and wickedness. In attempting to pass from undefined to another state, Confucius was set upon by a mob, which mistook him for an who had made himself hated by his oppressive deeds. He himself was perfectly calm amid the danger, though his followers were filled with alarm. They were obliged, however, to retrace their way to undefined, and he had there to appear before the undefined, who wished to see how a looked. There was a screen between them at the interview, such as the of  use in giving audience to their ; but Tze-lu, one of his principal s, was indignant that the master should have demeaned himself to be near such a woman, and to pacify him Confucius swore an  appealing to undefined to reject him if he had acted improperly. Soon afterwards he left the. Twice again, during his protracted wanderings, he was placed in imminent peril, but he manifested the same fearlessness, and expressed his confidence in the protection of undefined till his course should be run. On one of the 