Page:The sayings of Confucius; a new translation of the greater part of the Confucian analects (IA sayingsofconfuci00confiala).pdf/123

 Yen Yüan heaved a deep sigh and said: The more I look at our Master's teaching, the higher it seems. The more I test it, the more reliable it appears. I am gazing at it in front of me, when lo! it is suddenly behind me. Our Master knows how to draw men after him by regular steps. He broadens our outlook by means of polite learning, and restrains our impulses by means of inward self-control. Even if I wished to stop, I could not do so; yet after I have exhausted all my efforts in pursuit of the goal, there still remains something inaccessible rising up beyond; and though I would fain make towards it, I cannot find the way.

Tzǔ Lu once passed the night in Shih-mên, where the gate-keeper said to him: Where do you come from? Tzǔ Lu replied: From the school of Confucius.—Oh, is he not the man, said the other, who is trying to do what he knows to be impossible?