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THE TEXTS OF TAOISM.
'The mountain by its trees weakens itself 1. The grease which ministers to the fire fries itself. The cinnamon tree can be eaten, and therefore it is cut down. The varnish tree is useful, and therefore incisions are made in it. All men know the advantage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage of being useless.'
222
BK. IV.
of rhyme also in the sentence, and some critics find something like this in them:
'Ye ferns, ye thorny ferns, O injure not my way!
To save my feet, I backward turn, or winding stray!'
1 Literally, 'robs itself;'-exhausts its moisture or productive
strength.
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