But the evidence adduced for the existence of such educational institutions in ancient times is unsatisfactory, and from the older interpretation of the title we advance more easily to contemplate the object and method of the Work. 3. The object is stated definitely enough in the opening paragraph: 'What the Great Learning teaches, is -- to illustrate illustrious virtue; to love the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.' The political aim of the writer is here at once evident. He has before him on one side, the people, the masses of the empire, and over against them are those whose work and duty, delegated by Heaven, is to govern them, culminating, as a class, in 'the son of Heaven [3],' 'the One man [4],' the sovereign. From the fourth and 1 Chinese Repository, vol. iii. p. 98 2 太學, not 大學. See the note on the title of the Work below. 3 天子, Cl. (classical) Text, par. 6, 2. 4 一人, Comm. ix. 3. fifth paragraphs, we see that if the lessons of the treatise be learned and carried into practice, the result will be that 'illustrious virtue will be illustrated throughout the nation,' which will be brought, through all its length and breadth, to a condition of happy tranquillity. This object is certainly both grand and good; annd if a reasonable and likely method to secure it were proposed in the Work, language would hardly supply terms adequate to express its value. 4. But the above account of the object of the Great Learning leads us to the conclusion that the student of it should be a sovereign. What interest can an ordinary man have in it? It is high up in the clouds, far beyond his reach. This is a serious objection to it, and quite unfits it for a place in schools, such as Chu Hsi contends it once had. Intelligent Chinese, whose minds were somewhat quickened by Christianity, have spoken to me of this defect, and complained of the difficulty they felt in making the book a practical directory for their conduct. 'It is so vague and vast,' was the observation of one man. The writer, however, has made some provision for the general application of his instructions. He tells us that, from the sovereign down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person to be the root, that is, the first thing to be attended to [1]. _as in his method, moreover, he reaches from the cultivation of the person to the tranquillization of the kingdom, through the intermediate steps of the regulation of the family, and the government of the State [2], there is room for setting forth principles that parents and rulers generally may find adapted for their guidance. 5. The method which is laid down for the attainment of the great object proposed, consists of seven steps:-- the investigation of things; the completion of knowledge; the sincerity of the thoughts; the rectifying of the heart; the cultivation of the person; the regulation of the family; and the government of the state.