Returning after its brief career on earth, to the eternity whence it came.
A vulgar saying has it, "The masses value money; honest men, fame; virtuous men, resolution; and Sages, the soul."
Thus, the pure is that in which there is nothing mixed; the simple is that which implies no injury to the spirituality. And he who can keep the pure and simple within himself,—he is a divine man.
It requires but scant acumen to relegate this chapter to the limbo of forgeries. Lin Hsi Chung thinks it is probably from the hand of the unknown artist who is responsible for [ch. xiii].
CHAPTER XVI.
Exercise of Faculties.
Argument:—Tao unattainable by mundane arts—To be reached through repose—The world's infancy—The reign of peace—Government sets in—Tao declines—The true Sages of old—Their purity of aim.
Those who exercise their faculties in mere worldly studies, hoping thereby to revert to their original condition; and those who sink their aspirations in mundane thoughts, hoping thereby to reach enlightenment;—these are the dullards of the earth.