of the Books of the Li Chi, where he adds that 'he who
recompenses injury with kindness is a man who is careful of his
person [3].' Chang Hsuan, the commentator of the second century,
says that such a course would be 'incorrect in point of propriety
[4].' This 'propriety' was a great stumbling-block in the way of
Confucius. His morality was the result of the balancings of his
intellect, fettered by the decisions of men of old, and not the
gushings of a loving heart, responsive to the promptings of
Heaven, and in sympathy with erring and feeble humanity.
This subject leads me on to the last of the opinions of
Confucius which I shall make the subject of remark in this place.
A commentator observes, with reference to the inquiry about
recompensing injury with kindness, that the questioner was
asking only about trivial matters, which might be dealt with in
the way he mentioned, while great offences, such as those
against a sovereign or a father, could not be dealt with by such an
inversion of the principles of justice [5]. In the second Book of
the Li Chi there is the following passage:-- 'With the slayer of
his father, a man may not live under the same heaven; against the
slayer of his brother, a man must never have to go home to fetch a
weapon; with the slayer of

1 Ana. XIII. xix.
2 Ana. XIV. xxxvi.
3 §°O, ªí°O, par. 12.
4 «D§¤§¥¿.
5 See notes in loc., p. 288.


his friend, a man may not live in the same State [1].' The lex