l-tried excellence of
the inspired saying, 'Money is hundred-footed; upon perceiving a
tael lying apparently unobserved upon the floor, do not lose the time
necessary in stooping, but quickly place your foot upon it, for one
fails nothing in dignity thereby; but should it be a gold piece,
distrust all things, and valuing dignity but as an empty name, cast your
entire body upon it'--went forth to complete his great task of finally
erasing from the mind and records of the Empire the hitherto venerated
name of Lo Kuan Chang. Entering the place of commerce of the one who
seemed the most favourable for the purpose, he placed the facts as they
would in future be represented before him, explained the undoubtedly
remunerative fame that would ensue to all concerned in the enterprise
of sending forth the printed books in their new form, and, opening at a
venture the written leaves which he had brought with him, read out the
following words as an indication of the similarity of the entire work:

"'_Whai-Keng_. Friends, Chinamen, labourers who are engaged in
agricultural pursuits, entrust to this person your acute and
well-educated ears;

"'He has merely come to assist in depositing the body of Ko'ung in
the Family Temple, not for the purpose of making remarks about him
of a graceful and highly complimentary nature;

"'The unremunerative actions of which persons may have been guilty
possess an exceedingly undesirable amount of endurance;

"'The successful and well-considered almost invariably are
involved in a directly contrary course;

"'This person desires nothing more than a like fate to await
Ko'ung.'

"When this one had read so far, he paused in order to give the other
an opportunity of breaking in and offering half his possessions to
be allowed to share in the undertaking. As he remained unaccountably
silent, however, an inelegant pause occurred which this person at length
broke by desiring an expressed opinion on the matter.

"'O exceedingly painstaking, but nevertheless highly inopportune Kai
Lung,' he replied at length, while in his countenance this person
read an expression of no-encouragement towards his venture, 'all your
entrancing efforts do undoubtedly appear to attract the undesirable
attention of some spiteful and tyrannical demon. This closely-written
and elaborately devised work is in reality not worth the labour of a
single stroke, nor is there in all Peking a sender forth of prin