The Master said, "The prosecution of learning may be compared to what may happen in raising a mound. If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop,

15. CONFUCIUS' VERY HUMBLE ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF. Comp. VII. 2, but the things which Confucius here disclaims are of a still lower char. than those there mentioned. Very remarkable is the last, as from the sage. The old interpr. treat 何有於我哉, as they do in VII. 12. 公卿 stand together, indicat. men of superior rank. If we disting. between them, the公may express the princes, high officers in the imperial court, and the 卿, the high officers in the princes' courts.

16. HOW CONFUCIUS WAS AFFECTED BY A RUNNING STREAM. What does the it in the transl. refer to? 者 and 如 indicate something in the sage's mind, suggested by the ceaseless move. of the water. Choo He makes it 天地之化, =our 'course of nature'. In the 注疏 we find for it 时事, 'events', 'the things of time'. Probably Choo He is correct. Comp. Mencius, IV. ii. 18.

17. THE RARITY OF A SINCERE LOVE OF VIRTUE. 色, as in I. 7.

18. THAT LEARNERS SHOULD NOT CEASE NOR INTERMIT THEIR LABOURS. This is a fragment, like many other chapters, of some conversation, and the subject thus illustrated must be supplied, after the mod. comm., as in the translation, or, after the old, by 'the following of virtue'. See the Shoo-king, V. v. 9, where the subject is virtuous consistency. We might expect 平 in 平地, to be a verb, like 为 in 为山, but a good sense cannot be made out by taking it so. 虽, = 'tho' only, as many take it in VI. 24. The lesson of the ch. is—that repeated acquisitions individually small will ultimately amount to much, and that the learner is never to give over.

the stopping is my own work. It may be compared to throwing down the earth on the level ground. Though but one basketful is thrown at a time, the advancing with it is my own going forward."