Par. 2 suggests to Dr. Chalmers the well-known lines of Bunyan as an analogue of it:—
‘A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he gave away, the more he had.’
Wû Khăng brings together two sentences from Kwang-ʓze (XXXIII, 21 b, 22 a), written evidently with the characters of this text in mind, which, as from a Tâoist mint, are a still better analogue, and I venture to put them into rhyme :-
‘Amassing but to him a sense of need betrays;
He hoards not, and thereby his affluence displays.’
I have paused long over the first pair of contraries in par. 3 (利 and 害). Those two characters primarily mean ‘sharpness’ and ‘wounding by cutting;’ they are also often used in the sense of ‘being beneficial,’ and ‘being injurious;’-‘contraries,’ both of them. Which ‘contrary’ had Lâo-ʓze in mind? I must think the former, though differing in this from all previous translators. The Jesuit version is, ‘Celestis Tâo natura ditat omnes, nemini nocet;’ Julien's, ‘Il est utile aux êtres, et ne leur nuit point;’ Chalmers's, ‘Benefits and does not injure;’ and V. von Strauss's, “Des Himmels Weise ist wolthun und nicht beschädigen.’
