CHAPTER II

1. Mencius said, ＇The compass and square produce perfect circles and squares. By the sages, the human relations are perfectly exhibited.

2. ＇He who as a sovereign would perfectly discharge the duties of a sovereign, and he who as a minister would perfectly discharge the duties of a minister,have only to imitate—the one Yâo, and the other Shun.He who does not serve his sovereign as Shun served Yâo, does not respect his sovereign; and he who does not rule his people as Yâo ruled his, injures his people.

13. Compare Bk. II. Pt. II. ii. 4. We are obliged to supply considerably in the translation, to bring out the meaning of the last sentence. 贼 may be taken as a verb —＇to injure, or as I have taken it＇.

CHAPTER2. A CONTINUATION OF THE LAST CHAPTER;—THAT YÂO AND SHUN ARE THE PERFECT MODELS OF SOVEREIGNS AND MINISTERS, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT IMITATING THEM.

1. ＇The compass and square are the perfection of squares and circles;＇—but we must understand the meaning as in the translation. So with the and clause.人偷,—see Bk. III. Pt. I. iv. 8.

2. 二者= ＇these two＇ things, putting the above clauses abstractly, but we cannot do that so well in English.The force of 而已, according to the 备旨, is ＇to show that there is no other way for the sovereign and minister to pursue.＇—Of ＇the human relations＇ only that of sovereign and minister is here adduced, because Mencius was speaking with reference to the rulers of his time.

3. ＇Confucius said, "There are but two courses,which can be pursued, that of virtue and its opposite."

4. ＇A ruler who carries the oppression of his people to the highest pitch, will himself be slain, and his kingdom will perish. If one stop short of the highest pitch, his life will notwithstanding be in danger, and his kingdom will be weakened. He will be styled "The Dark," or "The Cruel," and though he may have filial sons and affectionate grandsons, they will not be able in a hundred generations to change the designation.

5. ＇This is what is intended in the words of the Book of Poetry,

"The beacon of Yin is not remote,

It is in the time of the (last) sovereign of Hsiâ." ＇