aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

158 AEOUND THE WORLD.
'* The sage has no special love.
He puts himself last, and yet is first;
he abandons himself, and yet is preserved. Is not this through his
having no selfishness ? When a work of merit is done, and reputation
is coming, he gets out of the way.
To produce, and have not; to act, and
expect not, — this is sublime virtue."
'
' A man pn tiptoe can not stand still ; astride his neighbor he can not
walk on. He who is seK-displaying does not shine; he who is self-praising
has no real merit. The unwise are full of ambitious desires, lusting
for the stalled ox, or for sexual enjoyment. The wise conquer themselves,
putting away all impurity, aU excess, and all gayety."
" The sage, timid and reserved, blends in sympathy with all, for he
thinks of them as his children.
There is no greater misery than discontent;
no greater sin than giving rein to lust. Tau, the spirit, is permanent,
yet undefinable. Spirits, but from some source of spirituality,
would be in danger of annihilation."
" The sage wears a coarse garment, and hides his jewels in his bosom.
He grasps nothing, and therefore loses nothing. He does not copy
others. He recompenses injury with kindness, and excels in forgetting
himseK."
After a long conference between Lau-tsze
and Confucius,
the latter said to his disciples, " I can tell how the runner
may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the flyer
shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon : I can not tell
how he mounts on the wing through the clouds, and' rises
to heaven. To-day I have seen Lau-tsze, and can only
compare him to the dragon."
EECKONING TIME.
The Chinese profess to trace mystical relations between
time and certain inherent principles in nature. Their year
is composed of lunar months, beginning with the new-moon,
that is, the first new-moon after the sun enters Aquarius,
which occurs between the 21st of January and the 19th of
February. This period marks the returning spring ; and the
first day of the new year is a universal holiday throughout
China. In reckoning their time, especially if it relates to
astrology, they use a sexagenary cycle, which confers meaning
names upon years, months, days, and hours. The Sweden-