Mencius said, "When Shun was living amid the deep retired mountains, dwelling with the trees and rocks,
CHAPTER 14. THE VALUE TO A RULER OF REPUTATION AND MORAL INFLUENCES.
Kindly words are but brief, and on an occasion. A reputation for kindness must be the growth of time and of many evidences. With the whole chapter, compare Ana., II. iii.
CHAPTER 1 5. BENEVOLENCE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE NATURAL TO MAN, PARTS OF HIS CONSTITUTION.
1. I translate 良 by "intuitive", but it serves also to denote the "goodness" of the nature of man. Choo He so defines it: 良者本然之善也.
2. 孩 is defined in the dict. by 小儿笑, "an infant smiling". When an infant has reached to this, then it is人所提挈, "taken by people in their arms".
3. 达之天下 must be supplemented by 无不同,"extend them (carry the inquiry about them) to all under heaven, and they are the same." This is just laying down universality as a test that those feelings are intuitive to us. Chaou K＇e, however, explains differently: "Those who wish to do good, have nothing else to do but to extend these ways of children to all under heaven."
CHAPTER 16. HOW WHAT SHUN WAS DISCOVERED ITSELF IN HIS GREATEST OBSCURITY.
决江河,—the 决 is the water itself bursting its banks;the agency of man in the matter is not to be supposed. So in the 备旨—决江河谓江之决也,
and wandering among the deer and swine, the difference between him and the rude inhabitants of those remote hills appeared very small. But when he heard a single good word, or saw a single good action,he was like a stream or a river bursting its banks, andflowing out in an irresistible fiood."