The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [77]
15. ‘This destruction taking place again and again, the restorative influence of quiet times is not sufficient to preserve the mind’s proper goodness.
16. ‘And when this proves insufficient, man’s nature ceases to be much different from that of the irrational animals.
17. ‘When they see this, people think that the mind never had powers of natural goodness.
18. ‘But does this condition represent the feelings proper to humanity ?
19. ‘If it receive its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not grow.
20. ‘If it lose its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay away.
21. ‘So it is with the minds and feelings of people, and their principles of benevolence and rightness.’
Chapter 10
1. The master said, ‘In good years the children of the people are mostly good, while in bad years most of them abandon themselves to evil.
2. ‘It is not owing to any difference of the powers conferred by nature that they are thus different. The abandonment to evil is owing to circumstances.
3. ‘Consider what happens to barley. Let it be sown and covered: if the ground and the time of sowing are the same, it grows rapidly anywhere;
4. ‘And when its full time is come, it is found to be ripe.
5. ‘If there are inequalities in different fields of barley, they are owing to the difference of the soil,
6. ‘To the unequal nourishment of rains and dews, to the different ways in which farmers have gone about their work.
7. ‘Thus all things which are the same in kind are like one another.
8. ‘Why should we be in doubt with regard to man, as if he were a solitary exception to this rule?
9. ‘The sage and we are the same in kind, if we allow the possibility of wisdom to flourish within us.
10. ‘If a man made hempen sandals without knowing the size of his customers’ feet, yet I know that he will not make them like baskets.
11. ‘As the feet of men are more or less the same size, neither like the feet of a mouse nor the feet of an elephant,
12. ‘So are the pleasures of their mouths in sweet and salt savours, and of their ears in the harmonies of music;
13. ‘So do most people enjoy the mild weather of autumn, and the beauty of the maidens as they bring water from the well.
14. ‘What is it that most people approve in the behaviour of their neighbours and friends?
15. ‘I say it is the four principles of our nature, and the guidance of rightness.
16. ‘The sages knew before I was born what my mind approves, along with the majority of other men, so that we can live in harmony.
17. ‘Therefore the principles of our nature and the determinations of righteousness are agreeable to my mind,
18. ‘Just as sweet and savoury delicacies are agreeable to my mouth.’
Chapter 11
1. The master said, ‘If a man loves others but no affection is shown to him in return, let him turn inwards and examine his own benevolence.
2. ‘If he is charged with governing others, and his rule is unsuccessful, let him turn inwards and examine his wisdom.
3. ‘If he treats others politely, and they do not return his politeness, let him turn inwards and examine his own feeling of respect.
4. ‘When we do not, by what we do, realise what we desire, we must turn inwards, and examine ourselves in every point.’
5. The master was asked, ‘All are equally men, but some are great men, and some are little men. How is this?’
6. He replied, ‘Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men.’
7. The master was then asked, ‘All are equally men, but some follow that part of themselves which is great, and some follow that part which is little. How is this?’
8. The master answered, ‘The senses of hearing and seeing do not think, and are obscured by external things.
9. ‘When one thing comes into contact with another, as a matter of course one leads the other away.
10. ‘To the mind belongs the office of thinking. By thinking, it gets the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this.
11. ‘These – the senses