Page 210 - 《孟子》（二）中·英对照版

?孟
子

kingdom is got. There is a way to get the people: —
get their hearts, and the people are got. There is a
way to get their hearts: — it is simply to collect for
them what they like, and not to lay on them what
they dislike. The people turn to a benevolent rule as
water flows downwards, and as wild beasts fly to the
wilderness. Accordingly, as the otter aids the deep
waters, driving the fish into them, and the hawk aids
the thickets, driving the little birds to them, so Jie
and Zhou aided Tang and Wu, driving the people to
them. If among the present rulers of the kingdom,
there were one who loved benevolence, all the other
princes would aid him, by driving the people to him.
Although he wished not to become sovereign, be
could not avoid becoming so. The case of one of the
present princes wishing to become sovereign is like
the having to seek for mugwort three years old, to
cure a seven years’ sickness. If it have not been kept
in store, the patient may all his life not get it. If the

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