Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/355

 mutual relations of brothers and sisters, the fifth the attitude to be assumed towards other men.

These determinations of Measure constitute the basis—Reason. Men have to guide themselves in conformity with these, and as regards the natural elements, it is laid down that their genii are to be reverenced by man.

There are people who devote themselves exclusively to the study of this Reason, who hold aloof from all practical life and live in solitude; yet what is always of most importance is, that these laws should be brought into use in practical life. When these are maintained intact, when duties are observed by men, then everything is in order in nature as well as in the empire; it goes well both with the empire and the individual. There is a moral connection here between the action of man and what takes place in nature. If misfortune overtakes the empire, whether owing to floods or earthquakes, conflagrations, dry weather, and the like, this is regarded as entirely the result of man’s not having been obedient to the laws of Reason, and as having happened because the rules of Measure have not been maintained in the empire. Owing to this, universal Measure is destroyed, and misfortune of the kind just described enters the land.

Thus Measure is known here as Being-in-and-for itself. This is the general foundation.

What comes next has to do with the giving effect to Measure. The maintenance of the laws belongs of right to the Emperor, to the Emperor as the Son of Heaven, which is the whole, the totality of Measure. The sky, as the visible firmament, is at the same time the power of Measure. The Emperor is the Son of Heaven (T‘ien-tsze); he has to honour the laws and to promote their recognition. The heir to the throne is made acquainted with all the sciences and with the laws by means of a careful education. It is the Emperor alone who renders