As to his own personal character, it was nearly faultless.  His humility and patience were alike remarkable, and his sincerity and candor were as marked as his humility.  He was the most learned man in the empire, yet lamented the deficiency of his knowledge.  He even disclaimed the qualities of the superior man, much more those of the sage.  “I am,” said he, “not virtuous enough to be free from cares, nor wise enough to be free from anxieties, nor bold enough to be free from fear.”  He was always ready to serve his sovereign or the State; but he neither grasped office, nor put forward his own merits, nor sought to advance his own interests.  He was grave, generous, tolerant, and sincere.  He carried into practice all the rules he taught.  Poverty was his lot in life, but he never repined at the absence of wealth, or lost the severe dignity which is ever to be associated with wisdom and the force of personal character.  Indeed, his greatness was in his character rather than in his genius; and yet I think his genius has been underrated.  His greatness is seen in the profound devotion of his followers to him, however lofty their merits or exalted their rank.  No one ever disputed his influence and fame; and his moral excellence shines all the brighter in view of the troublous times in which he lived, when warriors occupied the stage, and men of letters were driven behind the scenes.

The literary labors of Confucius were very great, since he made the whole classical literature of China accessible to his countrymen.  The fame of all preceding writers is merged in his own renown.  His works have had the highest authority for more than two thousand years.  They have been regarded as the exponents of supreme wisdom, and adopted as text-books by all scholars and in all schools in that vast empire, which includes one-fourth of the human race.  To all educated men the “Book of Changes” (Yin-King), the “Book of Poetry” (She-King), the “Book of History” (Shoo-King), the “Book of Rites” (Le-King), the “Great Learning” (Ta-heo), showing the parental essence of all government, the “Doctrine of the Mean” (Chung-yung), teaching the “golden mean” of conduct, and the “Confucian Analects” (Lun-yu), recording his conversations, are supreme authorities; to which must be added the Works of Mencius, the greatest of his disciples.  There is no record of any books that have exacted such supreme reverence in any nation as the Works of Confucius, except the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Book of the Law among the Hebrews, and the Bible among the Christians.  What an influence for one man to have exerted on subsequent ages, who laid no claim to divinity or even originality,—­recognized as a man, worshipped as a god!