The Light of the Ages (Asia, Africa, Europe) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... The Wise Governor. 87 much needed now as they were then. "The wise governor, as soon as men change what is wrong, stops governing." To The Wise rr,, r, QOVEENOR. an official who complained of the roguery of his subordinates he merely said, "If you, sir, were not rapacious, those whom you govern would not steal." Three things will be found in a country where there is good government: "enough food for the people, a ruler whom men can trust, and a good army." "But if a country must dispense with one of these three, which would it be best to do without?" He answered shortly, " The army." Of the Prince he said, "If his personal conduct is right his government will be good without so many orders; and if it be wrong none of his orders will be respected." Wise He thought war a calamity, and con-SAYINGS F CONFUCIUS. considered that a good government should dispense with capital punishment. They asked, "What is shameful in a Government employe?" "To think only of his salary in serving the Prince; a superior man will put duty first and pay last." Of himself he said, "I am not careful to be without office, but careful to fit myself for it." His conversation consisted less in long speeches than in the happiest and briefest replies. "Is there one word which expresses the whole duty of man?" he was once asked. He seems to have paused, unwilling to dismiss so lightly such a momentous topic; but, recovering himself, "Yes," he said, "there is one word, Reciprocity " which, he explained, was simply the doing unto others as we would they should do unto us. He was never weary of dilating upon this text. "I am not sad," he would say, "because men do not know me, but because I do not know men." Tanchi asked him, "What is benevolence?" The master said, " It is to love all m...