Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/331

CAP. XXIII.] "Preserve your form complete," said Kêng Sang, "your vitality secure. Let no anxious thoughts intrude. And then in three years' space you may attain to this."

"I do not know," said Nan Yung, "that there is any difference in the form of eyes; yet blind men cannot see. I do not know that there is any difference in the form of ears; yet deaf men cannot hear. I do not know that there is any difference in the form of hearts;


 * The seat of the intellect.

yet fools cannot use theirs to any purpose. The forms are alike; yet there is something which differentiates them. One will succeed, and another will not. Yet you tell me to preserve my form complete, my vitality secure, and let no anxious thoughts intrude. But so far I only hear with my ears."

"Well said!" cried Kêng Sang; and then he added, "Small wasps cannot transform huge caterpillars.


 * According to Chinese notions, the wasp has no young. It transforms a small caterpillar into the required offspring.

Bantams cannot hatch the eggs of geese. The fowls of Lu can. Not that there is any difference in the hatching power of chickens. One can and another cannot, because one is naturally fitted for working on a large, the other on a small scale. My talents