But the tree was not yet deeply enough rooted to resist accidents, and all his wise arrangements were suddenly overthrown by the caprice of the monarch, who, tired of the austere virtue of Confucius, suddenly plunged into a career of dissipation.

Confucius resigned his office, and again became a wanderer, but now with a new motive.

He had before travelled to learn, now he travelled to teach.

He collected disciples around him, and, no longer seeking to gain the ear of princes, he diffused his ideas among the common people by means of his disciples, whom he sent out everywhere to communicate his doctrines.

So, amid many vicissitudes of outward fortune, he lived till he was seventy-three years old.