It is obvious that an estimate so depreciatory is not to be taken literally. To understand its full significance, it should be compared to the magnificent description in Plato's Theætetus of the outward appearance presented by the philosopher, who, in presence of practical men, is the jest alike of "Thracian handmaids," and of the "general herd;" who is "unacquainted with his next-door neighbor;" who is "ignorant of what is before him, and always at a loss;" and who is so awkward and useless when called on to perform some menial office, such as "packing up a bag, or flavoring a sauce, or fawning speech." Yet this philosopher, like Laò-tsé, "honors his nursing Mother;" he moves in a sphere of thought where men of the world cannot follow him, and where they in their turn are lost (Theætetus, 174-176). Just such a character as that drawn by Plato, Laò-tsé seems to have been. Living in retirement, and devoted to philosophy, he appeared to his contemporaries an eccentric and incompetent person. Yet he says that they called him great (Ch. lxvii), which seems to imply that his reputation was already founded in his life-time. One other reference to himself must not be omitted, for it evinces the sense he had of the nature of his work in the world. "My words," so he writes in his paradoxical manner, "are very easy to understand, very easy to follow,—no one in the world is able to understand them, no one is able to follow them. The words have an author, the works have one who enjoins them; but he is not understood, therefore I am not understood" (Ch. lxx). On this Stanislas Julien observes, "There is not a word of Laò-tsé's that has not a solid foundation. In fact, they have for their origin and basis Tao and Virtue" (L. V. V. p. 269, n. 2). These expressions, then, suffice to show that Laò-tsé was not destitute of that sense of inspiration of which other great prophets have been so profoundly conscious. SECTION III.—GAUTAMA BUDDHA.[15] SUBDIVISION 1. _The Historical Buddha._