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Authors: Richard Grossman
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every step of the road;
To him, the greatest number of good hours is wisdom.
For it is only the finite that has wrought
and suffered;
The infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.
57
A state may be ruled by measures of correction;
Weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity;
But the kingdom is made one’s own
only by freedom from action and purpose
.
How do I know that it is so? By these facts
—
In the kingdom, the multiplication of prohibitive enactments
increases the poverty of the people;
The more implements to add to their profit that the people have
,
the greater disorder is there in the state and clan;
The more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess
,
the more do strange contrivances appear; The more display there is of legislation
,
the more thieves and robbers there are
.
Therefore, a sage has said, “I will do nothing of purpose
,
and the people will be transformed of themselves
.
I will be fond of keeping still
,
and the people will of themselves become correct. I will take the trouble about it
,
and the people will themselves become rich;
I will manifest no ambition
,
and the people will of themselves attain
to the primitive simplicity.”
We live in a very low state of the world
and pay unwilling tribute to governments
founded in force.
The tendencies of the times favor
the idea of self-government
And leave the individual, for all code,
to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution.
Therefore, all public ends look vague and quixotic
beside private ones.
For any laws but those which men
make for themselves are laughable.
Hence, the less government we have the better,
the fewer laws, and the less confided power.
The power of love, as the basis of the state,
has never been tried.
We must not imagine that all things
are lapsing into confusion,
If every tender protestant be not compelled
to bear his part in certain social conventions: Nor doubt that roads can be built,
Letters carried, and the fruit of laborers secured
when the government of force is at hand.
Could not a nation of friends devise a better way?
58
The government that seems the most unwise
,
Oft goodness to the people best supplies;
That which is meddling, touching everything
,
Will work but ill, and disappointment bring
.
Misery!
—
happiness is to be found by its side!
Happiness!
—
misery lurks beneath it!
Who knows what either will come to in the end?
Shall we then dispense with correction?
The method of correction shall by a turn
become distortion
,
And the good in it shall by a turn become evil
.
The delusion of the people on this point
has indeed subsisted for a long time
.
Therefore the sage is like a square
,
Which cuts no one with its angles;
Like a corner, which injures no one with its sharpness
.
He is straightforward, but allows himself no license;
He is bright, but does not dazzle
.
Our time is too full of activity and performance.
The world is governed too much;
Things have their laws, as well as man;
and refuse to be trifled with.
In changing moon, in tidal wave,
Glows the feud of Want and Have,
Mountain tall and ocean deep
Trembling balance duly keep.
An inevitable dualism bisects nature.
The reaction, so grand in the elements,
is repeated within small boundaries.
Every excess causes a defect;
Every defect an excess.
Every sweet hath its sour, every evil its good.
A wise man will extend this lesson
to all parts of life;
When he is pushed, tormented, defeated,
He has a chance to learn something,
is cured of the insanity of conceit,
has got moderation and real skill.
59
For regulating the human and rendering service to the heavenly
,
there is nothing like moderation
.
It is only by this moderation that there is effected
an early return to man’s normal state
.
That early return is what I call the
To him, the greatest number of good hours is wisdom.
For it is only the finite that has wrought
and suffered;
The infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.
57
A state may be ruled by measures of correction;
Weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity;
But the kingdom is made one’s own
only by freedom from action and purpose
.
How do I know that it is so? By these facts
—
In the kingdom, the multiplication of prohibitive enactments
increases the poverty of the people;
The more implements to add to their profit that the people have
,
the greater disorder is there in the state and clan;
The more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess
,
the more do strange contrivances appear; The more display there is of legislation
,
the more thieves and robbers there are
.
Therefore, a sage has said, “I will do nothing of purpose
,
and the people will be transformed of themselves
.
I will be fond of keeping still
,
and the people will of themselves become correct. I will take the trouble about it
,
and the people will themselves become rich;
I will manifest no ambition
,
and the people will of themselves attain
to the primitive simplicity.”
We live in a very low state of the world
and pay unwilling tribute to governments
founded in force.
The tendencies of the times favor
the idea of self-government
And leave the individual, for all code,
to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution.
Therefore, all public ends look vague and quixotic
beside private ones.
For any laws but those which men
make for themselves are laughable.
Hence, the less government we have the better,
the fewer laws, and the less confided power.
The power of love, as the basis of the state,
has never been tried.
We must not imagine that all things
are lapsing into confusion,
If every tender protestant be not compelled
to bear his part in certain social conventions: Nor doubt that roads can be built,
Letters carried, and the fruit of laborers secured
when the government of force is at hand.
Could not a nation of friends devise a better way?
58
The government that seems the most unwise
,
Oft goodness to the people best supplies;
That which is meddling, touching everything
,
Will work but ill, and disappointment bring
.
Misery!
—
happiness is to be found by its side!
Happiness!
—
misery lurks beneath it!
Who knows what either will come to in the end?
Shall we then dispense with correction?
The method of correction shall by a turn
become distortion
,
And the good in it shall by a turn become evil
.
The delusion of the people on this point
has indeed subsisted for a long time
.
Therefore the sage is like a square
,
Which cuts no one with its angles;
Like a corner, which injures no one with its sharpness
.
He is straightforward, but allows himself no license;
He is bright, but does not dazzle
.
Our time is too full of activity and performance.
The world is governed too much;
Things have their laws, as well as man;
and refuse to be trifled with.
In changing moon, in tidal wave,
Glows the feud of Want and Have,
Mountain tall and ocean deep
Trembling balance duly keep.
An inevitable dualism bisects nature.
The reaction, so grand in the elements,
is repeated within small boundaries.
Every excess causes a defect;
Every defect an excess.
Every sweet hath its sour, every evil its good.
A wise man will extend this lesson
to all parts of life;
When he is pushed, tormented, defeated,
He has a chance to learn something,
is cured of the insanity of conceit,
has got moderation and real skill.
59
For regulating the human and rendering service to the heavenly
,
there is nothing like moderation
.
It is only by this moderation that there is effected
an early return to man’s normal state
.
That early return is what I call the
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