38 THE OPERATIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



a show of culture 1 and the cap of a scholar. Disarm their 



wild proclivities and give them the ivory (the mark of 



culture). Let the people be made to be in mourning for 



three years so that the population be diminished. Let the 



high refuse office and the masses yield their rights. To keep 



them from strifes and struggles let them be saturated with 



wine and flesh and amused with music and orchestras : let 



them be awed by religion : multiply etiquettes and swell 



ceremonies in profusion so that nature may be buried in 



these artificialities : let burials be costly and mourning be 



protracted in order to weaken the family power. Let them 



spend freely on pearls and ornaments : on silk tassels 



elaborately worked so that they may be impoverished. Let 



them dig deep trenches and build high walls to exhaust their 



energies. Impoverished in family wealth, diminished in 



population their whole attention will be concerned with their 



poverties. Let social reforms move on these lines and it 



will be possible to keep the country without the fear of loss. 



As Lao Tzu says : 



I WILL GRATIFY THEIR SENSES FOR CULTURE 

 AND HOLD THEM IN RESTRAINT BY UNSPEAK- 

 ABLE JEJUNENESSE. 



x\. Comparison. 



In conclusion we may compare the Taoist view of life 

 in one respect with that of Socrates. Socrates maintained 

 that he was at his best when his daimonion was working; 

 and his thought clearest when he was most sure of divine 

 guidance. Prof. Bury says that "Socrates represents his 

 own life work as a sort of religious quest : he feels convinced 

 that in devoting himself to philosophic discussion he had 

 done the bidding of a superhuman guide and he goes to 

 death rather than be untrue to his personal conviction. 

 Because of this he became the champion of free discussion 

 and the supremacy of the individual conscience over human 

 law. ' ' And we have the Taoist view that human enactments 

 and the wisdom of Sages may be abolished. Tradition binds 

 man and therefore is inferior to "conscience." If men 

 followed the Taothey would never be opportunists, but 

 always act according to principle and right. Both had un- 

 bounded faith in spiritual law. Mere human knowledge is 

 of itself wholly inadequate and uncertain. But the Tao is 

 always full to those who have the mind for it. How then 

 is it that we have different qualities and characters in men? 



1 Cp. Confucius Analect? XIV, Chap. 18, 2. Hair dishevelled 

 implies uncultured. 



