were going to consecrate a bell with its blood, he said, "Let it go, I
cannot bear its frightened appearance--as if it were an innocent person
going to the place of death." They asked in reply whether, if they did
so, they should omit the consecration of the bell, but the king said,
"How can that be omitted? Change it for a sheep."' I do not know whether
this incident occurred."

"It did," said the king, and Mencius replied, "The heart seen in this is
sufficient to carry you to the Royal sway. The people all supposed that
your Majesty grudged the animal, but your servant knows surely that it
was your Majesty's not being able to bear the sight of the creature's
distress which made you do as you did."

The king said, "You are right; and yet there really was an appearance of
what the people imagined. But though Ts'e be narrow and small, how
should I grudge a bull? Indeed it was because I could not bear its
frightened appearance, as if it were an innocent person going to the
place of death, that therefore I changed it for a sheep."

Mencius said, "Let not your Majesty deem it strange that the people
should think you grudged the animal. When you changed a large one for a
small, how should they know the true reason? If you felt pained by its
being led without any guilt to the place of death, what was there to
choose between a bull and a sheep?" The king laughed and said, "What
really was my mind in the matter? I did not grudge the value of the
bull, and yet I changed it for a sheep! There was reason in the people's
saying that I grudged the creature."

Mencius said, "There is no harm in their saying so. It was an artifice
of benevolence. You saw the bull, and had not seen the sheep. So is the