For a long time I have not been enlightened. And he who is not enlightened himself,—how should he enlighten others?"
Lao Tzŭ said, "Ch'iu, you have attained!"
"The style of this chapter," says Lin Hsi Chung, "gives it a foremost place among the 'outside' essays of Chuang Tzŭ. But the insertion of that dialogue between Confucius and Lao Tzŭ on charity and duty towards one's neighbour is like eking out a sable robe with a dog's tail."
CHAPTER XV.
Self-Conceit.
Argument:—Would-be sages—The vanity of effort—Method of the true Sage—Passivity the key—The soul and mortality—Re-absorption into the immortal.
Self-conceit and assurance, which lead men to quit society, and be different from their fellows, to indulge in tall talk and abuse of others,—these are nothing more than personal over-estimation, the affectation of recluses and those who have done with the world and have closed their hearts to mundane influences.
Preaching of charity and duty to one's neighbour, of loyalty and truth, of respect, of economy, and of humility,—this is but moral culture, affected by would-be pacificators and teachers of mankind, and by scholars at home or abroad.