"The knowledge of the men of old had a limit. It extended back to a period when matter did not exist. That was the extreme point to which their knowledge reached.
"The second period was that of matter, but of matter unconditioned.
By time or space. "Being, in itself," says Herbert Spencer, "out of relation, is itself unthinkable." Principles of Psychology, iii. p. 258.
"The third epoch saw matter conditioned, but contraries were still unknown. When these appeared, Tao began to decline. And with the decline of Tao, individual bias arose.
"Have then these states of falling and rising real existences? Surely they are but as the falling and rising of Chao Wên's music,—the consequences of his playing.
Chao Wên played the guitar. Shih K'uang wielded the bâton.
To keep time.
Hui Tzŭ argued. Herein these three men excelled, and in the practice of such arts they passed their lives.
"Hui Tzŭ's particular views being very different from those of the world in general, he was correspondingly anxious to enlighten people. But he did not enlighten them as he should have done,
By the cultivation and passive manifestation of his own inward light.