The functions of the various classes of officials differ; but the sovereign shows no partiality, and therefore the empire is governed. There are the civil and the military; but the truly great man shows no preference for either, and therefore their efficacy is complete. All things are under the operation of varying laws; but TAO shows no partiality and therefore it cannot be identified. As the given part of anything. Not being able to be identified, it consequently does nothing. And by doing nothing all things can be done. "Seasons have their beginnings and their ends. Generations change and change. Good and evil fortune alternate, bringing sorrow here, happiness there. Nunc mihi, nunc alio, benigna. He who obstinately views things from his own standpoint only, may be right in one case and wrong in another. Just as in a great jungle all kinds of shrubs are found together; or as on a mountain you see trees and stones indiscriminately mixed,--so is what we call society." "Would it not do then," asked Shao Chih, "if we were to call this TAO?" "It would not," replied T'ai Kung Tiao. "All creation is made up of more than ten thousand things. We speak of creation as the _Ten Thousand Things_ merely because it is a convenient term by which to express a large number. In point of outward shape the universe is vast. In point of influence the Positive and Negative principles are mighty. Yet TAO folds them all in its embrace. For convenience' sake the bond of society is called great. But how can that which is thus conditioned By having a name. be compared with TAO? There is as wide a difference between them as there is between a horse and a dog." "Whence then," enquired Shao Chih, "comes the vitality of all things between the four points of the compass, between heaven above and earth beneath?" "The Positive and Negative principles," answered T'ai Kung Tiao, "influence, act upon, and regulate each other. The four seasons alternate with, give birth to, and destroy one another. Hence, loves and hates, and courses rejected and courses adopted. Hence too, the intercourse of the sexes. "States of peril and safety alternate. Good and evil fortune give birth to one another. Slowness and speed are mutually exclusive. Collection and dispersion are correlates. The actuality of these may be noted. There is the name and the embodiment. The essence of each can be verified. There is regular movement forward, modified by deflection into a curve. Exhaustion leads to renewal. The end introduces a new beginning. This is the law of material existences. The force of language, the reach of knowledge, cannot pass beyond the bounds of such material existences. The disciple of TAO refrains from prying into the states after or before. Human speculation stops short of this." "Chi Chên," said Shao Chih, "taught _Chance_; Chieh Tzŭ taught _Predestination_. "Two Sages." _Comm._ In the speculations of these two schools, on which side did right lie?"