Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/469

CAP. XXXII.] And the dark rock pines like nodding plumes Above his bier to wave, And God's own hand in that lonely land To lay him in the grave. The Burial of Moses (Mrs. Alexander).

"We fear," argued the disciples, "lest the carrion kite should eat the body of our Master"; to which Chuang Tzŭ replied, "Above ground I shall be food for kites; below I shall be food for mole-crickets and ants. Why rob one to feed the other?


 * With this may be compared the reply of Diogenes on a similar occasion. When the old cynic asked to be left unburied, his friends objected that he would be eaten by dogs and birds.


 * "Place my staff near me," said Diogenes, "that I may drive them away."


 * "How will you manage that?" enquired the friends. "You will not be conscious."


 * "What then will it matter to me to be torn by beasts," cried Diogenes, "if I am not conscious of it?"

"If you adopt, as absolute, a standard of evenness which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely even. If you adopt, as absolute, a criterion of right which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely right. Those who trust to their senses become slaves to objective existences. Those alone who are guided by their intuitions find the true standard. So far are the senses less reliable than the intuitions. Yet fools