are in this part of the treatise many valuable sentiments, and
counsels for all in authority over others. The objection to it is,
that, as the last step of the climax, it does not rise upon all the
others with the accumulated force of their conclusions, but
introduces us to new principles of action, and a new line of
argument. Cut off the commencement of the first paragraph which
connects it with the preceding chapters, and it would form a brief
but admirable treatise by itself on the art of government.
This brief review of the writer's treatment of the
concluding steps of his method will satisfy the reader that the
execution is not equal to the design; and, moreover, underneath all
the reasoning, and more especially apparent in the eighth and
ninth chapters of commentary (according to the ordinary
arrangement of the work), there lies the assumption that example
is all but omnipotent. We find this principle pervading all the
Confucian philosophy. And doubtless it is a truth, most important
in education and government, that the influence of example is
very great. I believe, and will insist upon it hereafter in these
prolegomena, that we have come to overlook this element in our
conduct of administration. It will be well if the study of the
Chinese Classics should call attention to it. Yet in them the
subject is pushed to an extreme, and represented in an
extravagant manner. Proceeding from the view of human nature
that it is entirely good, and led astray only by influences from
without, the sage of China and his followers attribute to personal
example and to instruction a power which we do not find that
they actually possess.
7. The steps which precede the cultivation of the person are
more briefly dealt with than those which we have just
considered. 'The cultivation of the person results from the