A simple basketful is
wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I stop short.
"Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground. Suppose again
just one basketful is left, when the work has so progressed. There I
desist!
"Ah! it was Hwui, was it not? who, when I had given him his lesson, was
the unflagging one!
"Alas for Hwui! I saw him ever making progress. I never saw him stopping
short.
"Blade, but no bloom--or else bloom, but no produce; aye, that is the
way with some!
"Reverent regard is due to youth. How know we what difference there may
be in them in the future from what they are now? Yet when they have
reached the age of forty or fifty, and are still unknown in the world,
then indeed they are no more worthy of such regard.
"Can any do otherwise than assent to words said to them by way of
correction? Only let them reform by such advice, and it will then be
reckoned valuable. Can any be other than pleased with words of gentle
suasion? Only let them comply with them fully, and such also will be
accounted valuable. With those who are pleased without so complying, and
those who assent but do not reform, I can do nothing at all.
"Give prominent place to loyalty and sincerity.
"Have no associates in study who are not advanced somewhat like
yourself.
"When you have erred, be not afraid to correct yourself.
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