The Master wanted to employ Ch'i-tiao K'ai in the business of government, but the latter said: No, I cannot yet sufficiently trust myself.--The Master was pleased with the reply. Once when Yen Yüan and Chi Lu were standing by, the Master said: Come, tell me, each of you, the wish of your hearts.--Tzŭ Lu said: I should like to have carriages and horses and fine fur garments, and share them with my friends; nor would I mind if they were worn out in this way.-- Yen Yüan said: My wish is to make no parade of goodness and no display of toilsome service rendered.[3]--Tzŭ Lu then said: I should like, Sir, to hear your own wishes. The Master said: To comfort the aged, to win the confidence of my friends, to love and cherish the young. The Master said: Yung might well be made a prince.[4] Chung Kung asked a question about Tzŭ-sang Po-tzŭ. The Master replied: He is a good man on the whole, though easy-going.--Chung Kung rejoined: Is it not excusable for a man who is strict in his own habits to be easy-going in dealing with the people under him? But if he becomes easy-going in his own habits as well as in his practice abroad, this is surely too much of a good thing.--The Master said: Yung's words are true. Jan Yu asked: Is our Master for or against the Prince of Wei?[5]--Oh, said Tzŭ Kung, I will ask him that.--He went in and said: What sort of men were Po I and Shu Ch'i?[6]--They were two ancient worthies, was the reply.--Did they ever repine? he asked.--They made perfect virtue their aim, and they attained it. Why then should they repine?--Tzŭ Kung went out again and said: Our Master is not for the Prince. Tsêng Tzŭ said: Ability asking instruction of incompetence, abundance sitting at the feet of insufficiency, a man of every virtue who thought he had none, solid in character yet making himself out a cypher, trespassed against but never retaliating--such was the humble state of mind in which my late friend[7] spent his life. Tsêng Tzŭ said: If a man can safely be entrusted with the care of a young orphan prince, or with the government of a large province, and if the approach of a great emergency cannot shake his resolution, is he not a man of the princely type? Of the princely type he is indeed! The authorities of Lu were proposing to reconstruct the Long Treasury. Min Tzŭ-ch‘ien said: Why not restore it, rather, in the ancient style? Why is it necessary to renovate it altogether?--The Master said: This man is no talker, but when he does speak, he speaks to the purpose. Ssŭ-ma Niu lamenting said: All other men have brothers; I alone have none.--Tzŭ Hsia said to him: I have heard it said that life and death are divine dispensations, that wealth and rank depend on the will of God. The higher type of man is unfailingly attentive to his own conduct, and shows respect and true courtesy to others. Thus all within the four seas[8] are his brethren. How then should he grieve at having no brothers?