Ta Hio: The Great Learning, translated by Ezra Pound (1928):
If the rulers of states think only of amassing riches, they will be surrounded, surrounded ineluctably, by mean men, and the depraved. And these mean men will make the ruler think they are great ministers, and the depraved men will manage the state, and moreover calamities will descend out of heaven, and vengeance rise from the people. And if, when things have come to such pass, there be a just man come to rule, he will be helpless against the evil; for private gain is not prosperity, and equity is the treasure of states.