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u. THE LrFE AND a'IMESOF CONFUCWS. 45
to send the usual sac, ificial flesh to his ministers. Feeling
that he was no longer able to inflt,ence his prince for
good, Confucius with resisting footsteps (Menc. V. II. i. 4 )
tardily withdrew from a Court that had sold its integrity
for a mess of pottage.
With many a backward look, and many a longing for
recall, he slowly departed to thirteen years of weary
exile. A later writer makes him put his melancholy
into verse, of which the folloMng is Dr. Legge's translation
:--
" Through the valley howls the blast,
Drizzling rain falls thick and fast.
Homeward goes the youthful bride,
O'er the wilds, crowds by her side.
How is it, O azure Heaven,
From my home I thus am driven,
Through the land my way to t_ace,
With no certain dwelling-place ?
Dark, dark the minds of men!
Worth in vain comes to their ken.
Hastens on my term of)'ears ;
Old age desolate appears."*
It may have been on this occasion that the incident
_ecorded in III. _4 occurred, when the Warden of the
Pass sought to cheer the disciples by assuring them that
Heaven was going to use their Master as a bell to arouse
the age. Legge in his Introduction says this was so, but
¢_ Legge's Intro, p. 77, from _ 7"_-_ A. D 176I , in his _ _