permitting his approach, and not rather at my allowing him to draw back?
If a man have cleansed himself in order to come and see me, I receive
him as such; but I do not undertake for what he will do when he goes
away."

"Is the philanthropic spirit far to seek, indeed?" the Master exclaimed;
"I wish for it, and it is with me!"

The Minister of Crime in the State of Ch'in asked Confucius whether Duke
Ch'an, of Lu was acquainted with the Proprieties; and he answered, "Yes,
he knows them."

When Confucius had withdrawn, the minister bowed to Wu-ma K'i, a
disciple, and motioned to him to come forward. He said, "I have heard
that superior men show no partiality; are they, too, then, partial? That
prince took for his wife a lady of the Wu family, having the same
surname as himself, and had her named 'Lady Tsz of Wu, the elder,' If he
knows the Proprieties, then who does not?"

The disciple reported this to the Master, who thereupon remarked, "Well
for me! If I err in any way, others are sure to know of it."

When the Master was in company with any one who sang, and who sang well,
he must needs have the song over again, and after that would join in it.

"Although in letters," he said, "I may have none to compare with me, yet
in my personification of the 'superior man' I have not as yet been
successful."

"'A Sage and a Philanthropist?' How should I have the ambition?" said