Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/228

194 precious in the extreme. The spirit spreads forth on all sides: there is no point to which it does not reach, attaining heaven above, embracing earth beneath. Influencing all creation, its form cannot be portrayed. Its name is then Of-God.


 * Such is man's spiritual existence before he is born into the world of mortals.

The of the pure and simple consists in preserving spirituality. He who preserves his spirituality and loses it not, becomes one with that spirituality. And through that unity the spirit operates freely, and comes into due relationship with God.


 * Returning after its brief career on earth, to the eternity whence it came.

A vulgar saying has it, "The masses value money; honest men, fame; virtuous men, resolution; and Sages, the soul."

Thus, the pure is that in which there is nothing mixed; the simple is that which implies no injury to the spirituality. And he who can keep the pure and simple within himself,—he is a divine man.


 * It requires but scant acumen to relegate this chapter to the limbo of forgeries. Lin Hsi Chung thinks it is probably from the hand of the unknown artist who is responsible for ch. xiii.