198 ASSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



mind idealizes Inaction, and seeks a metaphysical 

 basis for it. For mysticism and scepticism flourish 

 in the same atmosphere though in different soils, 

 both, though in different ways, implying the 

 abandonment of the rational problem. The sceptic, 

 the agnostic or positivist of to-day, declares it 

 insoluble, and settles down content to take things 

 as they are ; the mystic retires into himself, and 

 dreams of a state of being which is the obverse of 

 the world of fact. 



The triumph of Confucianism in the centuries 

 which intervened between Lao-Tzu and Chuang- 

 Tzu would account for the antagonism between 

 Taoism and Confucianism as we find it. But it 

 fails to account for the way in which Confucius is 

 sometimes represented as playing into the hands 

 of Taoism. On p. 85 f. n. the translator explains 

 it as a literary coup de main. Dr. Chalmers, quoted 

 by Dr. Legge, 1 says that both Chuang-Tzu and 

 Lieh-Tzu introduced Confucius into their writings 

 "as the lords of the Philistines did the captive 

 Samson on their festive occasions, ' to make sport 

 for them.' " But there is not a hint of this given 

 in the text, though throughout one long chapter 

 (chap, iv.) we find Confucius giving a Taoist refuta- 

 tion of Confucianist doctrines when defended by 

 his own pupil Yen Hui. It might seem like an 

 attempt to draw a distinction between Confucius 

 1 Encycl. Met., Art. "Lao-Tzu." 



