Hidden Virtue
Translation by Tree Buffalo
Nature gives life to them.
Virtue nourishes them.
Things of the world shape them.
And circumstances complete them.
This is why everything respects Nature and prizes virtue.
Nature’s respected and virtue’s prized, but no one commands it to be that way.
It is spontaneously so.
Hence, Nature gives life to them.
Then virtue nourishes them, raises them, develops them, protects them, feeds them, and covers them.
So, produce without possessing.
Act without expecting.
And raise without ruling.
This is called the hidden virtue.
Read some of the first English translations of Chapter 51 here.
