Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

98
THE SAYINGS OF MENCIUS
moral enthusiasm, and now denouncing in terms of cutting
sarcasm the abuses which after all he failed to check. The last
prince whom he successfully confronted was the Marquis of
Lu, who turned him carelessly away. He accepted this as the
Divine sentence of his failure, " That I have not found in this
marquis, a ruler who would hearken to me is an intimation of
heaven. Henceforth he lived in retirement until his ninety-
seventh year ; but from his apparent failure sprang a practical
success. His written teachings are amongst the most lively
and epigrammatic works of Chinese literature, have done much
to keep alive amongst his countrymen the spirit of Confucian-
ism, and even Western readers may drink wisdom from this
spring of Oriental lore. The following selections from his
sayings well exhibit the spirit of his system of philosophy and
morality: E. W.