forbidden to do this and that, the poorer will they be. The more sharp
weapons the people possess, the more will darkness and bewilderment
spread through the land. The more craft and cunning men have, the more
useless and pernicious contraptions will they invent. The more laws and
edicts are imposed, the more thieves and bandits there will be. 'If I
work through Non-action,' says the Sage, 'the people will transform
themselves.'"[1] Thus according to Lao Tz[)u], who takes the existence
of a monarchy for granted, the ruler must treat his subjects as follows:
"By emptying their hearts of desire and their minds of envy, and by
filling their stomachs with what they need; by reducing their ambitions
and by strengthening their bones and sinews; by striving to keep them
without the knowledge of what is evil and without cravings. Thus are the
crafty ones given no scope for tempting interference. For it is by
Non-action that the Sage governs, and nothing is really left
uncontrolled."[2]

[Footnote 1: _The Way of Acceptance_: a new version of Lao Tz[)u]'s _Tao
Tê Ching_, by Hermon Ould (Dakers, 1946), Ch. 57.]

[Footnote 2: _The Way of Acceptance_, Ch. 3.]

Lao Tz[)u] did not live to learn that such rule of good government would
be followed by only one sort of rulers--dictators; and as a matter of
fact the "Legalist theory" which provided the philosophic basis for
dictatorship in the third century B.C. was attributable to Lao Tz[)u].
He was not thinking, however, of dictatorship; he was an individualistic
anarchist, believing that if there were no active government all men
would be happy. Then everyone could attain unity with Nature for
himself. Thus we find in Lao Tz[)u], and later in all other Taoists, a
scornful repudiation of all social and official obligations. An answer