Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/102

 their theory a little farther on are of incomparable beauty.

It is this idea of death as rest, as a cessation of all worry, fatigue, and strife, that is so touchingly brought out in the stories we are about to give. First, however, there is a charming little anecdote illustrative of a lesson previously given by our philosopher that we must not overlook. We will call it

The Secret of Contentment.

As Confucius was on a journey to the Great Mountain, he fell in with a man named Jung Ch'i-ch'i, walking in a country place at Ch'êng. He was dressed in deerskin, with a girdle of cord; and he was playing a lute and singing.

"May I ask what makes you so happy, sir?" said Confucius.

"There are many things that make me happy," replied the other. "Of all created beings, human beings are the noblest; it has fallen to my lot to be a human being, and that is one