1841.
· Biographical Notice of Mencius.
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He died a short time after the birth of his son, and left the guardian- ship of the boy to his widow Chang she.
The care that this prudent and attentive mother took to educate her son, has been cited as a model for all virtuous parents. The house she occupied was near that of a butcher: she observed that at the first cry of the animals that were being slaughtered, the little Măng Ko ran to be present at the sight, and that on his return he sought to imitate what he had seen. Fearful that his heart might become hardened, and be accustomed to the sight of blood, she removed to another house which was in the neighborhood of a cemetery. The relations of those who were buried there, came often to weep upon their graves, and make the customary libations. Mencius soon took pleasure in these ceremonies, and amused himself in imitating them. This was a new subject of uneasiness to Chang she: she feared that her son might come to consider as a jest what is of all things the most serious, and that he would acquire a habit of per- forming with levity, and as a matter of routine merely, ceremonies which demand the most exact attention and respect. Again, there- fore she anxiously changed her dwelling, and went to live in the city, opposite to a school, where Măng Ko found examples the most worthy of imitation, and soon began to profit by them. I should not have spoken of this trifling anecdote, but for the allusion which the Chinese constantly make to it, in the proverb so often quoted: 'Măng tsze's mother was particular about her neighbors.'
Măng tsze did not fail to practice those virtues, which the Chinese suppose to be inseparably connected with the study of belles-lettres. He devoted himself early to the classics, and by the progress which he made in the right understanding of these venerated books, he was thought worthy to become one of the diciples of Tsze sze, the grand- son aud not unworthy imitator of Confucius himself. When he was perfectly versed in that moral philosophy, which the Chinese call, par excellence, "the Doctrine," he made a tender of his services to Seuen wang, the king of Tse: but not succeeding in obtaining employment from him, he next went to Hwuy wang, king of Leäng, or of Wei; for at this time, the country of Kaefung foo, in Honan, constituted a little state which was known by these two names.
This prince gave a cordial welcome to Mencius, but took no particular pains, as the philosopher would have wished, to profit by his instructions.
Mencius' views of antiquity appeared to him, perhaps not without reason, to be of a nature not applicable to the present moment. men to whom were committed the administration of the different provin-
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