SECTION IV.

ITS SCOPE AND VALUE.

1. The Doctrine of the Mean is a work not easy to
understand. 'It first,' says the philosopher Chang, 'speaks of one
principle; it next spreads this out and embraces all things;
finally, it returns and gathers them up under the one principle.
Unroll it and it fills the universe; roll it up, and it retires and
lies hid in secrecy [2].' There is this advantage, however, to the
student of it, that more than most other Chinese Treatises it has
a beginning, a middle, and an end. The first chapter stands to all
that follows in the character of a text, containing several
propositions of which we have the expansion or development. If
that development were satisfactory, we should be able to bring
our own minds en rapport with that of the author. Unfortunately it
is not so. As a writer he belongs to the intuitional school more
than to the logical. This is well put in the 'Continuation of the
General Examination of Literary Monuments and Learned Men,'--
'The philosopher Tsang reached his conclusions by following in
the train of things, watch-

1 See the ¥|®Ñ©Ý¾l»¡, art. ¤¤±e.
2 See the Introductory note of Chu Hsi.


ing and examining; whereas Tsze-sze proceeds directly and
reaches to Heavenly virtue. His was a mysterious power of
discernment, approaching to that of Yen Hui [1].' We must take the