308 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
CONFUCIUS AND HIS EDUCATIONAL IDEAS. 
BY DR. HIDESABURO EUDO, DELEGATE FROM THE ROYAL EDUCATIONAL 
SOCIETY OF JAPAN. 
[Translation from his notes in German.] 
Ladies and Gentlemen :—1 come from Japan, an old country, and in this new and 
flourishing country I have the honor to speak about an old one. Old as it is, its civiliza- 
tion is yet young. We expect you to guide and teach us in our civilization. I am sorry 
to say that I cannot speak in English on my subject. It is too difficult for me. Japan- 
ese is too strange for you. So I will speak in German. I think it is not so strange for 
you as Japanese. To avoid confusion I will read from mv notes. 
Wao was Confucius, about whom I shall speak ? He was a great 
philosopher of the Orient who has been revered as a teacher of virtue by 
annumbered millions during a period of more than two thousand years. 
Professor v. d. Gabelentz gives this opinion about bim: ¢ Quite a 
anique position is held by Confucius, who was a teacher of his people 
anlike any other ; who became and remained, so to speak, a ruler of his 
people—a place unique not only in the history of philosophy, but also in 
she history of humanity. For no other man has embodied in his own 
person his whole nationality and all that is eternal in it, as he did. If 
we would measure the greatness of a historical personality, I see only one 
standard that can be used—the duration, extent, and intensity of his 
‘nfluence. 
¢ According to this standard Confucius was one of the greatest men ; 
{or at this very time, after more than two thousand years, the moral, social, 
and political life of almost a third of mankind is under the full influence 
of his spirit.” 
This judgment shows the whole greatness of Confucius. But what 
greatness is, it is difficult to determine ; some people see only a part of it, 
out, nevertheless, judge of the whole. I will quote here several judg- 
ments in order to get, by comparing them, as near as possible to the 
sruth. 
One of the best pupils of Confucius, one who was intimately connected 
with him for a long time and by the strongest bonds, and who knew him 
che best, Tseu-Kung, says: ¢ Confucius is gentle, just, affable, temper- 
ate, and modest.” Mencius once quoted Yeu-yo’s opinion concerning 
Confucius : ‘As the miraculous kilin belongs to the quadrupeds, the 
phoenix to the birds, large mountains are only a kind of hill, and rivers 
and oceans kinds of lakes—so the great sage belongs also to mankind, but 
now much is he elevated above all men! Since the heavens and the earth 
were created, another man has not arisen like Confucius!” A great histo- 
rian, Ise-ma-tsien, says of Confucius: ¢¢ There have been rulers who have