[372]. Chinese Review, vol. xi. p. 162; Beal, Buddhism in China, p. 233.
[373]. Once when a heathen asked Hillel to show him the whole Jewish religion in a few words, he replied, “Do not unto others what thou wouldst not should be done unto thee.” Kuenen’s Religion of Israel, p. 243 (quotes Talmud, Sabbath, 31 a.)
[374]. See Isaiah xxxii. 5, 6. Socrates says in Phaedo, “to use words wrongly and indefinitely is not merely an error in itself; it also creates evil in the soul.” A vast amount of mischief is done by the misapplication of good adjectives to bad subjects. All true reformers, with Confucius, labour for a rectification of names.
[375]. Shu King, Shi King, Pref. and Introd. pp. 1-27, by Dr. Legge; Sacred Books of the East, vol. iii.
[376]. Mémoire sur la Vie et les Opinions de Lao-tsze.
[377]. Translation of the Tâo-teh-King, under the title, Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu.
[378]. μέθοδος, Prof. Douglas, Confucianism and Taoism, p. 189.
[379]. It is very interesting to find, so long before Christianity, and so far from its cradle, this fundamental rule in Christian morals. In the Book of Proverbs its enunciation may have preceded that in the Tao-teh-King in point of time; but its being uttered at the end of the world, along with the “golden rule” of Confucius, prove how essentially one are the moral instincts of humanity.
[380]. Dr. Legge’s Preface to vol. iii. of Sacred Books of the East, p. xxi; also Art. Lao-tsze, Encyc. Brit. vol. xiv.
[381]. Dr. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, pp. 128, 202; Beal, Introduction to Fa-Hian, p. 27.