working in a distant field. They asked his master's name, and, on being told, said, 'How is it possible you can serve a man who, when his country is plunged in the deepest misery and corruption, condescends to compromise his principles by seeking for office, instead of preferring a life of laborious and honest obscurity as we have done?' Having said this, they resumed their ploughing. When this was reported to Confucius, he exclaimed, 'Alas, alas! it is with men, and not with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, that I have to deal with. It is because all does not go on as it should do in this world, that it has become necessary for me to try and reform it.'"

The

From this it is easy to understand why he withdrew from his native state with such reluctance. slowness with which he travelled was in strong contrast to the haste which had previously marked his movements when returning in obedience to his sovereign's summons; and his biographers are fond of alluding to the fact as a circumstance deserving of special commendation.

It was as a mournful, melancholy, disappointed man that Confucius moved slowly on. He knew that for some unknown space of years he was to be an exile, and those who were with him, for he still had many followers, moved along sadly and silently

in his train. When they had crossed the confines of Wei, a state to the westward of Loo, including that portion of the territory of modern China where the provinces of Honan and Chi-le come together, he turned to take a last look at his native land, but it was shut out from view by the mountains. "Ah,"― he exclaimed in mournful accents

"My native land,

I seek in vain

To catch one glimpse
Of thee again.

The cruel mountains shut thee out from view,
And every step doth my deep grief renew.

"A forest screen

Had given perchance

A hope of some

Through piercing glance.

An axe had helped; but rocks no axe could fell.

Lost to my sight, dear land of home-farewell."

And again—it would seem that the weather was wet

and gloomy

"The cold chill rain falls thick and fast,

Sweeps thro' the vale the bitter blast.

A bride is borne across the plain,
She ne'er shall see her home again;

I, too, am borne away from home
Against my will, compelled to roam.

Ye powers of Heaven, look down from high

With pity on my misery;

All, all is dark! In vain I've striven,

No blessing on my work was given.

Men now but seek for wealth and power,

And live but in the present hour.

No gleam of hope breaks through the gloom

To light my footsteps towards the tomb."

In the depth of his despair Confucius had evidently forgotten the advice he had given years before, when making his first journey into Tse, to the would-be suicide, whose life he had saved, "Take heart, and remember, so long as there is life there is hope."

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CHAPTER IX.

In exile.

IT was in the year B.C. 496 that Confucius took up his residence at the capital of the principality of Wei. Its ruler is described-and it is singular to observe how many of the princes fall under the same category

-as a "worthless, dissipated man;" but he, not the less, gave Confucius a hospitable reception, and assigned him a yearly allowance of sixty thousand measures of grain. By this time the great teacher had recovered his composure. Change of scene and the incidents of travel seem always to have exercised a beneficial influence upon him, and the natural buoyancy of his temperament rendered him proof against any long-continued attacks of depression. His energy had increased, rather than diminished, with years, and he lost no time in returning to his favourite studies. He had, besides, a secret hope that he might find in one of the neighbouring states some

public position which might compensate him for the manner in which he had been treated in his own.

For he held on as tenaciously as ever to the practicability of applying his principles so as to improve the conduct, and add to the happiness, of those who might live under a government regulating its action by them. Of this he was sanguine. Nevertheless he had moments of discouragement, when, remembering his many failures, he would exclaim, "I do not murmur against the decrees of Heaven, or seek to lay the blame on my fellow-men; but my motives are misunderstood. I but strive to enforce a clearer conception of the higher duties of our nature, by using the means which Nature herself has afforded me, yet, alas! alas! it is by Heaven alone that I am comprehended."

He remained nearly a twelvemonth in Wei, and would have probably remained there longer, had it not been for an incident by which his disciples were greatly scandalized. The wife of the Prince of Wei was a woman of such a notoriously bad character that she was universally execrated. One day the prince, having invited Confucius to accompany him on an excursion into the country, drove through the streets of his capital with his wife by his side, whilst Confucius followed in another chariot. When the people saw him they shouted out, "Look, there goes