"A one-legged man discards ornament, his exterior not being open to commendation. Condemned criminals will go up to great heights without fear, for they no longer regard life and death from their former point of view. And those who pay no attention to their moral clothing Artificial virtues. and condition become oblivious of their own personality; and by thus becoming oblivious of their personality, they proceed to be the people of God. "Wherefore, if men revere them, they rejoice not. If men insult them, they are not angered. But only those who have passed into the eternal harmony of God are capable of this. "If your anger is external, not internal, it will be anger proceeding from not-anger. If your actions are external, not internal, they will be actions proceeding from inaction. "If you would attain peace, level down your emotional nature. If you desire spirituality, cultivate adaptation of the intelligence. If you would have your actions in accordance with what is right, allow yourself to fall in with the dictates of necessity. For necessity is the TAO of the Sage." Do nothing save what you cannot help doing. The authorship of this chapter has been disputed. Lin Hsi Chung regards the question as by no means settled. CHAPTER XXIV. HSÜ WU KUEI. _Argument_:--TAO is passionless--Immorality of the moral--Obstructions to natural virtue--The evils of action--Too much zeal--The outward and visible--The inward and spiritual--Illustrations. Hsü Wu Kuei, introduced by Nü Shang, went to see Wu Hou of Wei. A hermit, a minister, and a prince, respectively. The Prince greeted him sympathisingly, and said, "You are suffering, Sir. You must have endured great hardships in your mountain life that you should be willing to leave it and visit me." "It is I who should sympathise with your Highness, not your Highness with me," answered Hsü Wu Kuei. "If your Highness gives free play to passion and yields to loves and hates, then the natural conditions of your existence will suffer. Internally. And if your Highness puts aside passion and abjures loves and hates, then your senses of sight and hearing will suffer. Externally. It is I who should sympathise with your Highness, not your Highness with me." The Prince was too astonished to reply; and after a while Hsü Wu Kuei continued, "I will try to explain to your Highness how I judge of dogs. The lowest in the scale will eat their fill and then stop, like a cat. Those of the middle class are as though staring at the sun. The highest class are as though they had parted with their own individuality. "But I do not judge of dogs as well as I judge of horses. I judge of horses as follows. Their straightness In running. must be that of a line. Their curve must be that of an arc. Their squareness, that of the square. Their roundness, that of the compasses. One commentator applies all this to the shape of the animals.