"The art of preserving life," replied Lao Tzŭ, "consists in being able to keep all in ONE, _Sc._ Body and soul. See the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, ch. x, where this idea has been reproduced. to lose nothing, to estimate good and evil without divination, To know that each is bound up in the other. to know when to stop, and how much is enough, to leave others alone and attend to oneself, to be without cares and without knowledge,--to be in fact as a child. A child will cry all day and not become hoarse, because of the perfection of its constitutional harmony. Also reproduced in the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, ch. lv. It will keep its fist tightly closed all day and not open it, because of the concentration of its virtue. It will gaze all day without taking off its eyes, because its sight is not attracted by externals. In motion, it knows not whither it is bound; at rest, it is not conscious of doing anything; but unconsciously adapts itself to the exigencies of its environment. This is the art of preserving life." "Is this then the virtue of the perfect man?" cried Nan Yung. "Not so," said Lao Tzŭ. "I am, as it were, but breaking the ice. "The perfect man shares the food of this earth, but the happiness of God. He does not incur trouble either from men or things. He does not join in censuring, in plotting, in toadying. Free from care he comes, and unconscious he goes;--this is the art of preserving life." "This then is perfection?" inquired Nan Yung. "Not yet," said Lao Tzŭ. "I specially asked if you could be as a child. A child acts without knowing what it does; moves without knowing whither. Its body is like a dry branch; its heart like dead ashes. Thus, good and evil fortune find no lodgment therein; and there where good and evil fortune are not, how can the troubles of mortality be? "Those whose hearts are in a state of repose give forth a divine radiance, by the light of which they see themselves as they are. And only by cultivating such repose can man attain to the constant. "Those who are constant are sought after by men and assisted by God. Those who are sought after by men are the people of God; those who are assisted by God are his chosen children. The stuff of which rulers are made. "To study this is to study what cannot be learnt. To practise this is to practise what cannot be accomplished. To discuss this is to discuss what can never be proved. Let knowledge stop at the unknowable. That is perfection. And for those who do not follow this, God will destroy them! "Knowledge," says Emerson in his _Montaigne, or the Sceptic_, "is the knowing that we cannot know." "With such defences for the body, ever prepared for the unexpected, deferential to the rights of others,--if then calamities overtake you, these are from God, not from man. Let them not disturb what you have already achieved. Let them not penetrate into the soul's abode. For there resides the Will. And if the will knows not what to will, it will not be able to will.