wreck of time, we find an allusion to a spiritual world. Unfortunately,
it is impossible to say exactly what the passage means. According to Han
Fei (died B.C. 233), who wrote several chapters to elucidate the sayings
of Lao Tzu, the following is the correct interpretation:--

"Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish (i.e. do not
overdo it).

"If the empire is governed according to Tao, evil spirits will not be
worshipped as good ones.

"If evil spirits are not worshipped as good ones, good ones will do no
injury. Neither will the Sages injure the people. Each will not injure
the other. And if neither injures the other, then there will be mutual
profit."

The latter portion is explained by another commentator as follows:--

"Spirits do not hurt the natural. If people are natural, spirits have
no means of manifesting themselves; and if spirits do not manifest
themselves, we are not conscious of their existence as such. Likewise,
if we are not conscious of the existence of spirits as such, we must be
equally unconscious of the existence of inspired teachers as such; and
to be unconscious of the existence of spirits and of inspired teachers
is the very essence of Tao."

Adumbrations of Heracleitus.--In the hands of Lao Tzu's more immediate
followers, Tao became the Absolute, the First Cause, and finally One in
whose obliterating unity all seemingly opposed conditions of time and
space were indistinguishably blended. This One, the source of human