GREAT MEN OF ANCIENT TIMES. 123 



only 1 6 years old, and consequently inherited only the immature 

 development of his father. Consider Solomon as wise as we may, 

 we cannot conceive him as being very wise at the age of 16. There 

 is nothing mysterious about this, no "advantageous" or "disad- 

 vantageous" variation, but a plain result arising from a very plain 



cause. 



CONFUCIUS. 



Nearly 2,500 years ago there lived in China a man by the name 

 of Shoo-leang-heih, who was noted for his strength and courage, 

 who had served with distinction as a soldier and who had been 

 appointed chief magistrate of the province of Tseaou-y. When 

 advanced in years he found hiroself a widower with nine children, 

 all girls his only son having died in infancy. Although already 

 an old man he decided upon marrying again in the hope of having 

 a son to continue the family in the male line. Acting on this 

 impulse, he addressed himself to the head of the house of Yen, 

 requesting one of his daughters in marriage. Yen was loath to 

 give one of his daughters in marriage to so old a man, but, as 

 Shoo-leang-heih was too great and powerful a person to be ignored, 

 he called his three daughters before him and stated the case. Find- 

 ing that the two elder daughters maintained silence to even the 

 proposition of marrying a chief magistrate, the youngest daughter 

 spoke up and said that she would do her father's bidding. From 

 this very old man, Shoo-leang-heih, and the youngest daughter 

 of another old man, sprang Confucius, the greatest man in Chi- 

 nese history and one of the greatest men who ever lived. This 

 does not tell us how old Shoo-leang-heih was at the time of his 

 son's birth, but the probabilities are that he was considerable over 

 sixty and perhaps over seventy years of age. Time has to be 

 provided for him to acquire distinction as a soldier, to be appointed 



