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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



propriated existing well-defined and primal elements of moral 

 law which had been evolved in preceding ages. 



Confucius followed this principle, and did not lay claim to 

 having originated the principles of his philosophy, but to have 

 simply undertaken to revive laws which the ancients had laid 

 down, but which had become practically obsolete through non- 

 observance. He undertook to induce his fellow-men to observe 

 the essential laws of good government and good society, not be- 

 cause of attached penalties, but because it was necessary to good 

 society and the promotion of virtue. He recognized with sorrow 

 that political intrigue, infidelity to the trusts of men in all rela- 

 tions, and crime of all kinds prevailed in spite of the laws in- 

 tended to regulate such things, and to the task of restoring the 

 righteous rules of his ancestors he set himself. He knew that 

 penal codes were powerless for good when there was not a moral 

 sense to enforce them. Modern prohibitive legislation is a par- 



All the prohibitive statutes that our Legislatures have so far 

 enacted have failed to do away with drunkenness, for the reason 

 that there is lacking sufficient personal sense of obligation to en- 

 force them. The Chinese statutes, or the writings of the fathers, 

 the classics so called, set forth the means to virtue and morality ; 

 but neither the legal authorities nor the people recognized any 

 need for enforcing or observing them. He sought by precept 

 and example to revive the moral sense of the people ; but at the 

 end of a long life he died in poverty and disappointment, having 

 apparently produced no impression. 



Kung-f u-tse (Latinized into Confucius) was born about 550 B. c. 

 His father was descended from one of the many royal families 

 which had figured in the past as rulers of tribes or provinces. 

 Most likely these ancient Chinese royal families were little more 

 than the Indian chiefs in our day, and their claim to royalty was 

 recognized only in a very narrow limit. But he was not in power 

 when the Sage was born. He had been married two or three 

 times, but had no son, except one cripple, which did not count. 

 At an advanced old age he married a young wife, and Kung, Jr., 

 was the result. The father died when the boy was about three 

 years old, and left his family in poverty. But, under the class 

 distinctions into which Chinese society was divided, Kung in- 

 herited at least the class instincts of a gentleman, and managed 

 in some manner to obtain a good education as Chinese education 

 went. He was married when about twenty years old, and soon 

 after his marriage his mother died. According to the custom of 

 his country, this event required that he retire for three years 

 from all business relations, and it is supposed that he spent this 

 period of mourning in the study of the classics. When he again 



