GENERAL OBSERVATIONS I IDEALS 653 



elles: voire la recognoissance de Vignorance est Vun des plus beaux 

 et plus seurs tesmoignages de iugement que ie ireuve. 



Perhaps I can best close this section with the mottoes of 

 niy own laboratory which are from far away and long ago, but 

 which I love all the more for these reasons, since in my phi- 

 losophy of life all men are brothers and all times helpful. We can 

 never escape from the great Past if we would, and we ought not 

 to wish to do so, because to it and to the great men of other 

 races than our own we owe many things — reverence being one. 



"We are the fruit of Time and owe all to the immeasurable Past." Emerson. 



I love them also because they teach at the same time up- 

 rightness and humility, independence and co-operation. The 

 first is from Egypt and the second from China : 



Be not of your learning vain. 

 Treat the simple and the wise 

 With like honor. Open hes 

 Art's great gate for all, and they 

 Who have entered by that way 

 Know how still before them flies 

 The perfection they would gain. 



Precepts of Ptah-Hotep. 

 (33 centuries B.C.) 

 Sayings of Confucius 

 (500 B.C.) 



The way of heaven and earth may be completely disclosed in one sentence — 

 they are without any doubleness. 



To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge. 



The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess 

 your ignorance. 



There were four things the Master taught: Letters, ethics, devotion of soul 

 and truthfulness. 

 The Doctrine of the Mean. The Confucian Analects 



There are many equally wise and suggestive aphorisms in 

 the Confucian books. Here is one: 



Hwuy gives me no assistance. There is nothing that I say in whicli he does 

 not delight. 



And here is another: 



Yuen Jang was squatting on his heels, and so waited the approach of the 

 Master, who said to him, "Id youth not humble as befits a junior; in manhood 



