deal with the latter first. -- Let us suppose that the cultivation
of the person is fully attained, every discordant mental element
having been subdued and removed. It is assumed that the
regulation of the family will necessarily flow from this. Two
short paragraphs are all that are given to the illustration of the
point, and they are vague generalities on the subject of men's
being led astray by their feelings and affections.
The family being regulated, there will result from it the
government of the State. First, the virtues taught in the family
have their correspondencies in the wider sphere. Filial piety will
appear as loyalty. Fraternal submission will be seen in respect
and obedience to elders and superiors. Kindness is capable of
universal application. Second, 'From the loving example of one
family, a whole State becomes loving, and from its courtesies the
whole State become courteous [1].' Seven paragraphs suffice to
illustrate these statements, and short as they are, the writer
goes back to the topic of self-cultivation, returning from the
family to the individual.
The State being governed, the whole empire will become
peaceful and happy. There is even less of connexion, however, in
the treatment of this theme, between the premiss and the
conclusion, than in the two previous chapters. Nothing is said
about the relation between the whole kingdom, and its component
States, or any one of them. It is said at once, 'What is meant by
"The making the whole kingdom peaceful and happy depends on the
government of the State," is this:-- When the sovereign behaves
to his aged, as the aged should be behaved to, the people become
filial; when the sovereign behaves to his elders, as elders should
be behaved to, the people learn brotherly submission; when the
sovereign treats compassionately the young and helpless, the
people do the same [2].' This is nothing but a repetition of the
preceding chapter, instead of that chapter's being made a step
from which to go on to the splendid consummation of the good
government of the whole kingdom.
The words which I have quoted are followed by a very
striking enunciation of the golden rule in its negative form, and
under the name of the measuring square, and all the lessons of the
chapter are connected more or less closely with that. The
application of this principle by a ruler, whose heart is in the first
place in loving sympathy with the people, will guide him in all the
exactions which
1 See Comm. ix. 3.
2 See Comm. x. 1.
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