Listen!  You who answer your parents rudely, and cause them to weep; you who bring grief and trouble on your masters; you who cause your husbands to fly into passions; you who cause your wives to mourn; you who hate your younger brothers, and treat your elder brothers with contempt; you who sow sorrow broadcast over the world;—­what are you doing but blowing your noses in fans, and using reading-desks as pillows?  I don’t mean to say that there are any such persons here; still there are plenty of them to be found—­say in the back streets in India, for instance.  Be so good as to mind what I have said.

Consider, carefully, if a man is born with a naturally bad disposition, what a dreadful thing that is!  Happily, you and I were born with perfect hearts, which we would not change for a thousand—­no, not for ten thousand pieces of gold:  is not this something to be thankful for?

This perfect heart is called in my discourses, “the original heart of man.”  It is true that benevolence is also called the original heart of man; still there is a slight difference between the two.  However, as the inquiry into this difference would be tedious, it is sufficient for you to look upon this original heart of man as a perfect thing, and you will fall into no error.  It is true that I have not the honour of the personal acquaintance of every one of you who are present:  still I know that your hearts are perfect.  The proof of this, that if you say that which you ought not to say, or do that which you ought not to do, your hearts within you are, in some mysterious way, immediately conscious of wrong.  When the man that has a perfect heart does that which is imperfect, it is because his heart has become warped and turned to evil.  This law holds good for all mankind.  What says the old song?—­“When the roaring waterfall is shivered by the night-storm, the moonlight is reflected in each scattered drop."[88] Although there is but one moon, she suffices to illuminate each little scattered drop.  Wonderful are the laws of Heaven!  So the principle of benevolence, which is but one, illumines all the particles that make up mankind.  Well, then, the perfection of the human heart can be calculated to a nicety, So, if we follow the impulses of our perfect heart in whatever we undertake, we shall perform our special duties, and filial piety and fidelity will come to us spontaneously.  You see the doctrines of this school of philosophy are quickly learnt.  If you once thoroughly understand this, there will be no difference between your conduct and that of a man who has studied a hundred years.  Therefore I pray you to follow the impulses of your natural heart; place it before you as a teacher, and study its precepts.  Your heart is a convenient teacher to employ too:  for there is no question of paying fees; and no need to go out in the heat of summer, or the cold of winter, to pay visits of ceremony to your master to inquire after his health.  What admirable teaching this