In literary accomplishments I am perhaps equal to other men; but I have not yet succeeded in exhibiting the conduct of the princely man in my own person.
To divine wisdom and perfect virtue I can lay no claim. All that can be said of me is that never falter in the course which I pursue and unwearying in my instruction of others—this and nothing more.—Kung-hsi Hua said: But those are just the qualities that we, your disciples, are unable to acquire.
The Master being grievously sick, Tzǔ Lu proposed the offering up of a prayer.—Is there a precedent for this? asked the Master.—Tzǔ Lu replied: There is. In the Eulogies[1] it is written: "We pray unto you, O spirits of Heaven and Earth."—The Master said: My prayers began long ago.[2]
The Master was passing through a by-street when a man of the district shouted: Great is Confucius the philosopher! Yet for all his wide
- ↑ It is not known exactly what these were—a collection of prayers, a book of rituals for the dead, or panegyrics on the departed.
- ↑ Confucius speaks of prayer in the sense made familiar to us by Coleridge's line: "He prayeth best who loveth best." In this higher sense his whole life had been one long prayer, and he refuses any mediation between himself and God. Could antagonism to the ritualistic spirit be carried much farther than this?
