The subjects on which the Master did not talk, were—extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.

18. CONFUCIUS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS CHARACTER, AS BEING SIMPLY A MOST EARNEST LEARNER. 1. 叶(read she?) was a district of Tsoo(楚), the governor or perfect of which had usurped the title of kung. Its name is still preserved in a district of the dep. of 南阳, in the south of Ho-nan. 2. 云sometimes finishes a sentence (Premare, 'claudit orationem'), as here. The 尔 after it =耳, imparting to all the preceding description a meaning indicated by our simply or only.

19. CONFUCIUS' KNOWLEDGE NOT CONNATE, BUT THE RESULT OF HIS STUDY OF ANTIQUITY. Here again, acc. to comm., is a wonderful instance of the sage's humility disclaiming what he really had. The comment of 尹和靖, subjoined to Choo He's own, is to the effect that the knowledge born with a man is only 义 and 理, while ceremonies, music, names of things, history, &c., must be learned. This would make what we may call connate or innate knowledge the moral sense, and those intuitive principles of reason, on and by which all knowledge is bullt up. But Confucius could not mean to deny his being possessed of these. 'I love antiquity'; i.e., the ancients and all their works.

20. SUBJECTS AVOIDED BY CONFUCIUS IN CONVERSATION. 乱, 'confusion', meaning rebellious disorder, parricide, regicide, and such crimes. Choo He makes 神 here=鬼神造化之迹, 'the mysterious, or spiritual operations apparent in the course of nature'.王肃(died A.D.266), as given by Ho An, simply says—鬼神之事, 'the affairs of spiritual beings'. For an instance of Conf. avoiding such a subject, see XI.11.