Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/101

Make conscientiousness and sincerity your first principles.

If you make promises within the bounds of what is right, you will be able to keep your word.

I do not know how men get along without good faith. A cart without a yoke and a carriage without harness, how could they go?

My aim in the conduct of life would be to be a comfort to my old folk at home; to be sincere and to be found trustworthy by my friends; and to love and care for my young people at home.

Be conscientious and sincere in what you say; be earnest and serious in what you do; in that way, although you might be in barbarous countries, you will get along well with men.

A wise man should be solicitous about truth, not anxious about poverty.

When a man’s father is living, the son should have regard to what his father would have him do; when the father is dead, to what his father has done. A son who for three years after his father’s death does not in his own life change his father’s principles, may be said to be a good son.

When his parents are living, a good son should do his duties to them according to the usage prescribed by propriety; when they are dead, he should bury them and honour their memory according to the rites prescribed by propriety.

Think how anxious your parents are when you are sick and you will know your duties towards them.