188 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



that there is no distinction between subject and 

 object. This is the very axis of TAO" (p. 18). 

 Abstraction from self, then, is the road which 

 leads to TAO (chap. vi.). The pure of old did not 

 love life and hate death. They were content to be 

 passive vehicles of TAO. They had reached the 

 state of sublime indifference, they had become 

 "oblivious of their own existence." Everything 

 in them was spontaneous ; nothing the result of 

 effort. " They made no plans ; therefore failing, 

 they had no cause for regret ; succeeding, no cause 

 for congratulation " (p. 69). " They cheerfully 

 played their allotted parts, waiting patiently for 

 the end. They were free, for they were in per- 

 fect harmony with creation" (p. 71). For them 

 One and not One are One ; God and Man. For 

 they had attained to TAO, and TAO is greater than 

 God. " Before heaven and earth were, TAO was. 

 It has existed without change from all time. 

 Spiritual beings draw their spirituality therefrom ; 

 while the universe became what we see it now. To 

 TAO the zenith is not high, nor the nadir low ; no 

 point of time is long ago, nor by lapse of ages 

 has it grown old " (p. 76). The great legislators 

 obtained TAO, and laid down eternal principles. 

 The sun and moon, and the Great Bear are kept 

 in their courses by TAO. 



" Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 

 And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and 

 strong." 



