Office.
are causes of unhappiness. From which we may infer that even happiness is not exempt from sorrow.
A reductio ad absurdum.
Wherefore it has been said, "Those who over-estimate the external and lose their natural instincts in worldliness,—these are the people of topsy-turvydom."
We are left in the dark as to the authorship of the numerous quotations in this and the preceding chapter. It is, however, a point of minor importance, neither chapter having the slightest claim to be regarded as the genuine work of Chuang Tzŭ.
CHAPTER XVII.
Autumn Floods.
Argument:—Greatness and smallness always relative—Time and space infinite—Abstract dimensions do not exist—Their expression is concrete—Terms are not absolute—Like causes produce unlike effects—In the unconditioned alone can the absolute exist—The only absolute is Tao—Illustrations.