"An old tree is cut down to make sacrificial vessels, which are then ornamented with colour. The stump remains in a ditch. The sacrificial vessels and the stump in the ditch are very differently treated as regards honour and dishonour; equally, as far as destruction of the woods original nature is concerned. Similarly, the acts of Robber Chê and of Tsêng and Shih are very different; but the loss of original nature is in each case the same. "The causes of this loss are five in number; viz.--The five colours confuse the eye, and the eyes fail to see clearly. The five sounds confuse the ear, and the ear fails to hear accurately. The five scents confuse the nose, and obstruct the sense of smell. The five tastes cloy the palate, and vitiate the sense of taste. Finally, likes and dislikes cloud the understanding, and cause dispersion of the original nature. "These five are the banes of life; yet Yang and Mih regarded them as the _summum bonum_. As attainment of TAO. For Yang Chu and Mih Tzu, see chs. ii and viii. They are not my _summum bonum_. For if men who are thus fettered can be said to have attained the _summum bonum_, then pigeons and owls in a cage may also be said to have attained the _summum bonum_! "Besides, to stuff one's inside with likes and dislikes and sounds and colours; to encompass one's outside with fur caps, feather hats, the carrying of tablets, or girding of sashes--full of rubbish inside while swathed in magnificence without--and still to talk of having attained the _summum bonum_;--then the prisoner with arms tied behind him and fingers in the squeezer, the tiger or the leopard which has just been put in a cage, may justly consider that they too have attained the _summum bonum_!" "L'homme," says Rousseau (_op. cit._), "est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers." This chapter, as it stands, is clearly not from the hand of Chuang Tzŭ. One critic justly points out the want of logical sequence in arrangement of argument and illustrations. Another, while admitting general refinement of style, calls attention to a superficiality of thought noticeable in certain portions. "Yet only those," he adds, "who eat and sleep with their Chuang Tzŭs would be able to detect this." CHAPTER XIII. THE TAO OF GOD. _Argument_:--TAO is repose--Repose the secret of the universe--Cultivation of essentials--Neglect of accidentals--The sequence of TAO--Spontaneity of true virtue--TAO is unconditioned--TAO cannot be conveyed--Illustrations. The TAO of GOD operates ceaselessly; and all things are produced. The TAO of the sovereign operates ceaselessly; and the empire rallies around him. The TAO of the Sage operates ceaselessly; and all within the limit of surrounding ocean acknowledge his sway. He who apprehends God, who is in relation with the Sage, and who recognises the radiating virtue of the sovereign,--his actions will be to him unconscious, the actions of repose.