The pure men of old did not know what it was to love life or to hate death. They did not rejoice in birth, nor strive to put off dissolution. Quickly come, and quickly go;--no more. They did not forget whence it was they had sprung, neither did they seek to hasten their return thither. Cheerfully they played their allotted parts, waiting patiently for the end. This is what is called not to lead the heart astray from TAO, By admitting play of passion in the sense condemned in ch. v. which would hinder the mind from resting quietly in the knowledge of the known. nor to let the human seek to supplement the divine. But to wait patiently for the knowledge of the unknown. And this is what is meant by a pure man. Such men are in mind absolutely free; in demeanour, grave; in expression, cheerful. If it is freezing cold, it seems to them like autumn; if blazing hot, like spring. Their passions occur like the four seasons. Each at its appointed time. They are in harmony with all creation, and none know the limit thereof. These last few words occur in the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, ch. lviii. See _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_, p. 40. Also, with a variation, in ch. xxii of this work. And so it is that a perfect man can destroy a kingdom and yet not lose the hearts of the people, while the benefits he hands down to ten thousand generations do not proceed from love of his fellow-man. Whatever he does is spontaneous, and therefore natural, and therefore in accordance with right. He who delights in man, is himself not a perfect man. His affection is not true charity. Charity is the universal love of all creation which admits of no particular manifestations. Depending upon opportunity, he has not true worth. True worth is independent of circumstances. It is a quality which is always unconsciously operating for good, and needs no opportunity to call it into existence. He who is not conversant with both good and evil is not a superior man. The good, to practise; the evil, to avoid. He who disregards his reputation is not what a man should be. As a mere social unit. He who is not absolutely oblivious of his own existence can never be a ruler of men. Thus Hu Pu Hsieh, Wu Kuang, Poh I, Shu Ch'i, Chi Tzŭ Hsü Yü, Chi T'o, and Shên T'u Ti, were the servants of rulers, and did the behests of others, not their own. A list of ancient worthies whose careers had been more or less unsuccessful. Of the first and second little is known, except that the ears of the latter were seven inches long. The third and fourth were brothers and are types of moral purity. Each refused the throne of their State, because each considered his brother more entitled thereto. Finally, they died of starvation on the mountains rather than submit to a change of the Imperial dynasty. More will be heard of these two later on.