came about that
the streets of Fow Hou were covered with large flat stones, to the great
inconvenience of those persons who had, from a very remote period, been
in the habit of passing the night on the soft clay which at all
seasons of the year afforded a pleasant and efficient resting-place.
Nevertheless, in certain matters his engaging efforts were attended by
an obvious success. Having noticed that misfortunes and losses are much
less keenly felt when they immediately follow in the steps of an earlier
evil, the benevolent and humane-minded Chan Hung devised an ingenious
method of lightening the burden of a necessary taxation by arranging
that those persons who were the most heavily involved should be made the
victims of an attack and robbery on the night before the matter became
due. By this thoughtful expedient the unpleasant duty of parting from so
many taels was almost imperceptibly led up to, and when, after the lapse
of some slight period, the first sums of money were secretly returned,
with a written proverb appropriate to the occasion, the public rejoicing
of those who, had the matter been left to its natural course,
would still have been filling the air with bitter and unendurable
lamentations, plainly testified to the inspired wisdom of the
enlightened Mandarin.

"The well-merited success of this amiable expedient caused the Mandarin
Chan Hung every variety of intelligent emotion, and no day passed
without him devoting a portion of his time to the labour of discovering
other advantages of a similar nature. Engrossed in deep and very sublime
thought of this order, he chanced upon a certain day to be journeying
through Fow Hou, when he met a person of irregular intellect, who
made an uncertain livelihood by following the unassuming and
charitably-disposed from place to place, chanting in a loud voice set
verses recording their virtues, which he composed in their honour. On
account of his undoubted infirmities this person was permitted a greater
freedom of speech with those above him than would have been the case had
his condition been merely ordinary; so that when Chan Hung observed him
becoming very grossly amused on his approach, to such an extent indeed,
that he neglected to perform any of the fitting acts of obeisance,
the wise and noble-minded Mandarin did not in any degree suffer his
complacency to be affected, but, drawing near, addressed him in a calm
and dignified manner.

"'Why, O Ming-hi,' he said