strength. Confucius, however, never recognised a disturbance of
the moral elements in the constitution of man. The people would
move, according to him, to the virtue of their ruler as the grass
bends to the wind, and that virtue

1 Ana. XII. xvii; xviii; xix.
2 ¤¤±e, xx. 14.


would come to the ruler at his call. Many were the lamentations
which he uttered over the degeneracy of his times; frequent were
the confessions which he made of his own shortcomings. It seems
strange that it never came distinctly before him, that there is a
power of evil in the prince and the peasant, which no efforts of
their own and no instructions of sages are effectual to subdue.
The government which Confucius taught was a despotism,
but of a modified character. He allowed no 'jus divinum,'
independent of personal virtue and a benevolent rule. He has not
explicitly stated, indeed, wherein lies the ground of the great
relation of the governor and the governed, but his views on the
subject were, we may assume, in accordance with the language of
the Shu-ching:-- 'Heaven and Earth are the parents of all things,
and of all things men are the most intelligent. The man among
them most distinguished for intelligence becomes chief ruler, and
ought to prove himself the parent of the people [1].' And again,
'Heaven, protecting the inferior people, has constituted for them
rulers and teachers, who should be able to be assisting to God,
extending favour and producing tranquillity throughout all parts
of the kingdom [2].' The moment the ruler ceases to be a minister
of God for good, and does not administer a government that is