A THE OPERATIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



counsels of state, the hapless condition of politics may be 

 imagined. The blood that flowed in decadent imperial 

 Eome was almost contemporaneous with similar play of 

 human passions in China. In both countries the times were 

 turbulent and the age was military. Where law and justice 

 fail to animate the mind of those in authority, "thieves and 

 bandits multiply." 



It seems necessary to say that much at least on the 

 history of the period to enable us to create for ourselves the 

 conditions in which the young prince grew up to manhood. 

 The din of arms and the schemes of shifting policies were 

 the common events of life. To a humane and sensitive 

 mind, to* a keen student of human affairs, it must have been 

 a perplexing time. Political conditions led him probably to* 

 test the validity of the foundations of society and the art of 

 government. The prevailing disorders, the inhumanity and 

 injustice of politics, must have suggested to his perplexed 

 mind whether there could be any real law in the universe, 

 and whether all did not fall out by the fortuity of chance 

 and human passions. Was the art of government as 

 preached by Confucius of any value to human institutions, 

 and were the multitude of prescriptions of outward deportment 

 of any practical service? The scums of evil seem to* pre- 

 dominate and leave virtue out of account. Was it then that — 



"The pillared firmament is rottenness 

 And earth's base built on stubble." 



He turned to history and experience for an answer. 



Experience must be the great teacher and the guide of the 



philosopher. From an examination of this source he evidently 



found that — 



Evil on itself shall back recoil 



And mix no more with goodness, when at last 



Gather'd like scum, and settled to itself 



It shall be in eternal restless change 



Self -fed and self -consumed. 



What scraps of history there were within his reach, in 

 that ancient time, proved this much to him, as is clear in 

 the essays he wrote. How then could misrule be explained 

 and the unruly condition of the age be accounted for? Simply 

 because men had a wrong view of life. They went astray 

 because they tried to exercise their own untutored fancies 

 and followed the lead of passions. What they should have 

 done was to listen to the spirit voice within, and follow that. 

 Thus there was the Non-action so often mentioned. Follow 

 the light and your energies will have full scope, in the right 

 way. By the adoption of written enactments and pre- 

 scribed formulae government of men must fail. Mere 



