The Master being very sick, Tsze-loo asked leave to pray for him. He said, "May such a thing be done?" Tsze-loo replied, "It may. In the Prayers it is said, 'Prayer has been made to the spirits of the upper and lower worlds.'" The Master said, "My praying has been for a long time."

33. WHAT CONFUCIUS DECLINED TO BE CONSIDERED, AND WHAT HE CLAIMED. 若 and 抑 are said to be correlatives, in which case they = our 'although' and 'yet'. More naturally, we may join 若directly with 圣与人, and take 抑 as = our 'but'. 云尔, see ch.18,2. 已矣, added to 云尔, increase its emphasis, = 'just this and nothing more'.

34. CONFUCIUS DECLINES TO BE PRAYED FOR. 疾病 together mean 'very sick'. 有诸, 诸 is interrogative, as we find it frequently in Mencius. 诔, 'To write a eulogy, and confer the posthumous honorary title'; also, 'to eulogize in prayer', i.e., to recite one's excellencies as the ground of supplication. Tsze-loo must have been referring to some well known collection of such prayers. In 祷尔, seems rather to be an expletive than the pronoun. 上下= heaven and earth, 神 being the approp. desig. of the spirits of the former, and 祇 of the latter. —Choo He says, 'Prayer is the expression of repentance and promise of amendment, to supplicate the help of the spirits. If there may not be those things, then there is no need for praying. In the case of sage, he had committed no errors, and admitted of no amendment. In all his conduct he had been in harmony with the spiritual intelligences, and therefore he said,—my praying had been for a long time.' We may demur to some of these expressions, but the declining to be prayed for, and concluding remark, do indicate the satisfaction of Confucius with himself. Here, as in other places, we wish that our information about him were not so stinted and fragmentary.