Then he kept them hungry and
thirsty, trotting them and galloping them, and grooming, and
trimming, with the misery of the tasselled bridle before and the
fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than half of them
were dead.
The potter says: "I can do what I will with clay. If I want it
round, I use compasses; if rectangular, a square."
The carpenter says: "I can do what I will with wood. If I want it
curved, I use an arc; if straight, a line."
But on what grounds can we think that the natures of clay and
wood desire this application of compasses and square, of arc and
line? Nevertheless, every age extols Po Lo for his skill in
managing horses, and potters and carpenters for their skill with
clay and wood. Those who _govern_ the Empire make the same
mistake.
Although Taoism, of which Lao-Tze was the founder and Chuang-Tze the
chief apostle, was displaced by Confucianism, yet the spirit of this
fable has penetrated deeply into Chinese life, making it more urbane and
tolerant, more contemplative and observant, than the fiercer life of the
West. The Chinese watch foreigners as we watch animals in the Zoo, to
see whether they "drink water and fling up their heels over the
champaign," and generally to derive amusement from their curious habits.
Unlike the Y.M.C.
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