Page:The sayings of Confucius; a new translation of the greater part of the Confucian analects (IA sayingsofconfuci00confiala).pdf/132

 But if he becomes easy-going in his own habits as well as in his practice abroad, this is surely too much of a good thing.—The Master said: Yung's words are true.

Jan Yu asked: Is our Master for or against the Prince of Wei? —Oh, said Tzǔ Kung, I will ask him that.—He went in and said: What sort of men were Po I and Shu Ch'i? —They were two ancient worthies, was the reply.—Did they ever repine? he asked.—They made perfect virtue their aim, and they attained it. Why then should they repine?—Tzǔ Kung went out again and said: Our Master is not for the Prince.

Tsêng Tzǔ said: Ability asking instruction of incompetence, abundance sitting at the feet of insufficiency, a man of every virtue who thought he had none, solid in character yet making himself out a cypher, trespassed against but never retaliating—such was the humble state of mind in which my late friend spent his life.

Tsêng Tzǔ said: If a man can safely be entrusted with the care of a young orphan prince, or with the government of a large province, and if the approach of a great emergency cannot shake his resolution, is he not a man of the