It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist under heaven, who can transform [3].' It may safely be affirmed, that when he thus expressed himself, Tsze-sze understood neither what he said nor 1 Ch. xxi. 2 Ch. xxii. 3 Ch. xxiii. whereof he affirmed. Mao Hsi-ho and some other modern writers explain away many of his predicates of sincerity, so that in their hands they become nothing but extravagant hyperboles, but the author himself would, I believe, have protested against such a mode of dealing with his words. True, his structures are castles in the air, but he had no idea himself that they were so. In the twenty-fourth chapter there is a ridiculous descent from the sublimity of the two preceding. We are told that the possessor of entire sincerity is like a spirit and can foreknow, but the foreknowledge is only a judging by the milfoil and tortoise and other auguries! But the author recovers himself, and resumes his theme about sincerity as conducting to self-completion and the completion of other men and things, describing it also as possessing all the qualities which can be predicated of Heaven and Earth. Gradually the subject is made to converge to the person of Confucius, who is the ideal of the sage, as the sage is the ideal of humanity at large. An old account of the object of Tsze-sze in the Chung Yung is that he wrote it to celebrate the virtue of his grandfather [1]. He certainly contrives to do this in the course of it. The thirtieth, thirty-first, and thirty-second chapters contain his eulogium, and never has any other mortal been exalted in such terms. 'He may be compared to heaven and earth in their supporting and containing, their over-shadowing and curtaining all things; he may be compared to the four seasons in their alternating progress, and to the sun and moon in their successive shining.' 'Quick in apprehension, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and all-embracing knowledge, he was fitted to exercise rule; magnanimous, generous, benign, and mild, he was fitted to exercise forbearance; impulsive, energetic, strong, and enduring, he was fitted to maintain a firm hold; self-adjusted, grave, never swerving from the Mean, and correct, he was fitted to command reverence; accomplished, distinctive, concentrative, and searching, he was fitted to exercise discrimination.' 'All-embracing and vast, he was like heaven; deep and active as a fountain, he was like the abyss.' 'Therefore his fame overspreads the Middle Kingdom, and extends to all barbarous tribes. Wherever ships and carriages reach; wherever the strength of man penetrates; wherever the heavens overshadow 1 唐陸德明釋文謂孔子之孫,子思,作此以昭明祖德; see the 中庸唐說一, p. 1. and the earth sustains; wherever the sun and moon shine; wherever frosts and dews fall;-- all who have blood and breath unfeignedly honour and love him.