d him fully to
understand the import of so profound and well-digested a remark.

"At that time Tiao Ts'un was undoubtedly the most beautiful maiden in
all Peking. So frequently were the verses describing her habits and
appearances affixed in the most prominent places of the city, that many
persons obtained an honourable livelihood by frequenting those spots
and disposing of the sacks of written papers which they collected to
merchants who engaged in that commerce. Owing to the fame attained by
his written sentence, this really very much inferior being had many
opportunities of meeting the incomparable maiden Tiao at flower-feasts,
melon-seed assemblies, and those gatherings where persons of both sexes
exhibit themselves in revolving attitudes, and are permitted to embrace
openly without reproach; whereupon he became so subservient to her
charms and virtues that he lost no opportunity of making himself utterly
unendurable to any who might chance to speak to, or even gaze upon, this
Heaven-sent creature.

"So successful was this person in his endeavour to meet the sublime
Tiao and to gain her conscientious esteem that all emotions of prudence
forsook him, or it would soon have become apparent even to his enfeebled
understanding that such consistent good fortune could only be the work
of unforgiving and malignant spirits whose ill-will he had in some way
earned, and who were luring him on in order that they might accomplish
his destruction. That object was achieved on a certain evening when this
person stood alone with Tiao upon an eminence overlooking the city and
watched the great sky-lantern rise from behind the hills. Under these
delicate and ennobling influences he gave speech to many very ornamental
and refined thoughts which arose within his mind concerning the graceful
brilliance of the light which was cast all around, yet notwithstanding
which a still more exceptional and brilliant light was shining in his
own internal organs by reason of the nearness of an even purer and more
engaging orb. There was no need, this person felt, to hide even his most
inside thoughts from the dignified and sympathetic being at his side, so
without hesitation he spoke--in what he believes even now must have been
a very decorative manner--of the many thousand persons who were then
wrapped in sleep, of the constantly changing lights which appeared in
the city beneath, and of the vastness which everywhere lay around.

"'O Kai Lung,' ex