Read Online The Tao of Emerson by Richard Grossman - Free Book Online Page A

repeated accumulation

   of the attributes of the Tao
.
With that repeated accumulation of those attributes, there comes

   a subjugation of every obstacle to such return
.
Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the limit;

And when one knows not what the limit shall be
,
   he may be the ruler of a state
.
    He who possesses the mother of the state may continue long
.
His case is like that of the plant, of which we say

   that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm
—
This is the way to secure that its enduring life

   shall long be seen
.
    By your own act you teach the beholder
   how to do the practicable.
According to the depth from which you draw
   your life,
Such is the depth not only of your strenuous effort,
   but of your manners and presence.
Leave the military hurry and adopt the pace of nature.
Her secret is patience.
Have the self-command you wish to inspire.
Your teaching and discipline must have
   the reserve and taciturnity of nature.
Say little; do not snarl; do not chide;
   but govern by the eye.
See what they need and the right thing is done.

60
    Governing a great state is like cooking small fish
.
    Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao
,
And the manes of the departed will not manifest

   their spiritual energy
.
It is not that those manes have not that spiritual energy
,
   but it will not be employed to hurt men
.
It is not that it could not hurt men
,
   but neither does the ruling sage hurt them
.
    When these two do not injuriously affect each other
,
Their good influences converge in the virtue of the Tao
.
    Fear, Craft and Avarice
   cannot rear a state;
The more reason, the less government.
In a sensible family, nobody hears
   the words “shall” and “shan’t.”
Nobody commands and nobody obeys
   but all conspire and joyfully cooperate.
The wise know that foolish legislation
   is a rope of sand
   which perishes in the twisting.
The law is only a memorandum.
    When the statehouse is the hearth,
   the perfect state is come.

61
    What makes a great state is its being like a low-lying
,
   down-flowing stream
—
It becomes the center to which tend

   all the small states under heaven
.
    To illustrate from the case of all females
—
The female always overcomes the male by her stillness
.
Stillness may be considered a sort of abasement
.
    Thus it is that a great state, by condescending

   to small states, gains them for itself
,
And that small states, by abasing themselves

   to a great state, win it over to them
.
In the one case the abasement leads to

   gaining adherents
,
In the other case to procuring favor
.
    The great state only wishes to unite men together

   and nourish them;

A small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other
.
Each gets what it desires
,
   but the great state must learn to abase itself
.
    The excellence of men consists
   in the completeness with which
   the lower system is taken up into the higher—
A process of much time and delicacy.
    Those who are capable of humility, of justice,
   of love, of aspiration,
Stand already on a platform that commands
   action and grace.
    This is the law of moral and mental gain.
The simplest rise as by specific levity,
   not into a particular virtue,
But into the region of all virtues.
    Sympathy, the female force, is more subtle, and lasting,
   and creative.

62
    Tao has of all things the most honored place
.
No treasures give good men so rich a grace;

Bad men it guards and doth their ill efface
.
    Its admirable words can purchase honor;

Its admirable deeds can raise their performer above others
.
Even men who are not good are not abandoned by it
.
    Why was it that the ancients prized this Tao so much?

Was it not because it could be got by seeking for it
,
And the guilty could escape from the stain of their guilt by it?

This is the reason why all under heaven consider