CHAPTER III
1. The philosopher Kaou said, "Life is what we call nature!"
2. Mencius asked him, "Do you say that by nature you mean life, just as you say that white is white?""Yes, I do," was the reply. Mencius added, "Is the whiteness of a white feather like that of white snow,
—lit., "the goodness of man's nature," but we must take 善 as = "tendency to good." 3. 激, "to provoke,""to fret," the consequence of a dam. 激而行之,—"dam and walk it," i.e., by gradually leading it from dam to dam, Choo He says: "This chapter tells us that the nature is properly good, and if we accord with it, we shall do nothing which is not good; that it is properly without evil, and we must violate it, therefore, before we can do evil. It shows that the nature is not properly without a decided character, so that it may do good or evil indifferently."