Note 139 — BOOK XV

Another of these seigneurs du temps jadis that is more to us than a dim shadow, for he still lives in the pages of Mencius, who tells us that, He was not ashamed of a foul lord, and did not refuse a small post. On coming in he did not hide his worth, but held his own way. Neglected and idle, he did not grumble; straitened and poor, he did not mope. When brought together with country folk he was quite at his ease and could not bear to leave them. Thou art thou, he said, and I am I: standing beside me with thy coat off, or thy body naked, how canst thou defile me? (Book X, chapter 1). He stopped if a hand was raised to stop him, for he did not care whether he went or no (Book III, chapter 9).