Note 24 — THE SAYINGS OF CONFUCIUS (continued 2)

"The will to learn" is a necessarily vague rendering of the equally vague original. It means here a desire for moral culture, which is nothing else than the development of that inner sense of harmony and proportion (li) referred to on p. 99. Good instincts, according to Confucius, are not enough to produce virtues, unless they are supplemented by careful cultivation of this moral sense.