Confucius sometimes soared to the highest morality known to the Pagan world.  Chung-kung asked about perfect virtue.  The master said:  “It is when you go abroad, to behave to every one as if you were receiving a great guest, to have no murmuring against you in the country and family, and not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself....  The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear.  Let him never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety; then all within the four seas will be brothers....  Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles, and be moving continually to what is right.”  Fan-Chi asked about benevolence; the master said:  “It is to love all men.”  Another asked about friendship.  Confucius replied:  “Faithfully admonish your friend, and kindly try to lead him.  If you find him impracticable, stop.  Do not disgrace yourself.”  This saying reminds us of that of our great Master:  “Cast not your pearls before swine.”  There is no greater folly than in making oneself disagreeable without any probability of reformation.  Some one asked:  “What do you say about the treatment of injuries?” The master answered:  “Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.”  Here again he was not far from the greater Teacher on the Mount “When a man’s knowledge is sufficient to attain and his virtue is not sufficient to hold, whatever he may have gained he will lose again.”  One of the favorite doctrines of Confucius was the superiority of the ancients to the men of his day.  Said he:  “The high-mindedness of antiquity showed itself in a disregard of small things; that of the present day shows itself in license.  The stern dignity of antiquity showed itself in grave reserve; that of the present shows itself in quarrelsome perverseness.  The policy of antiquity showed itself in straightforwardness; that of the present in deceit.”  The following is a saying worthy of Montaigne:  “Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave to.  If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility; if you maintain reserve to them, they are discontented.”

Such are some of the sayings of Confucius, on account of which he was regarded as the wisest of his countrymen; and as his conduct was in harmony with his principles, he was justly revered as a pattern of morality.  The greatest virtues which he enjoined were sincerity, truthfulness, and obedience to duty whatever may be the sacrifice; to do right because it is right and not because it is expedient; filial piety extending to absolute reverence; and an equal reverence for rulers.  He had no theology; he confounded God with heaven and earth.  He says nothing about divine providence; he believed in nothing supernatural.  He thought little and said less about a future state of rewards and punishments.  His morality was elevated, but not supernal.  We infer from his writings that his age was degenerate and corrupt, but, as we have