- that this life is bounded at each end by an immortality to which the soul finally reverts.
"Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state."
We must have pure men, and then only can we have pure knowledge.
- "Pure" must be understood in the sense of transcendent.
But what is a pure man?—The pure men of old acted without calculation, not seeking to secure results. They laid no plans. Therefore, failing, they had no cause for regret; succeeding, no cause for congratulation. And thus they could scale heights without fear; enter water without becoming wet; fire, without feeling hot. So far had their wisdom advanced towards Tao.
- "The world-spirit is a good swimmer, and storms and waves cannot drown him."—Emerson.
The pure men of old slept without dreams, and waked without anxiety. They ate without discrimination, breathing deep breaths. For pure men draw breath from their uttermost depths; the vulgar only from their throats.
- "Uttermost depths" is literally "heels," but all the best commentators take the sentence to mean that pure men breathe with their whole being, and not as it were superficially, from the throat only.
- This passage is probably responsible for the trick of taking deep inhalations of morning air, practised
