Hail and farewell! to the Spirits of Light, Whose minds shot a ray through this darkness of ours- A desert of thorns, not a garden of flowers! An involuntary tremble came over us, which only found relief in silence and tears. This was a subject that awakened all Uncle Timothy's enthusiasm; and how beautiful was that enthusiasm! how tender and enduring! 'Age could not wither it, nor custom stale But it produced fits of abstraction and melancholy; and Mr. Bosky, knowing this, would interpose a merry tale or song. Upon the present occasion he made a bold dash from the sublime to the ridiculous, and striking up a comical voluntary, played us out of Little Britain. When I behold the setting sun, And shop is shut, and work is done, In Sunday suit, to see my fair It sinks with rapture-on my plate! But, see the hour-glass, moments fly— Homeward hie to Huggin Lane; Mr. William Shakspeare says That true love runs not smooth as oil- 'Gentlemen,' said Uncle Timothy, as he bade us good night, 'the rogue, I fear, will be the spoil of you, as he hath been of me!' unto the Company the 4 of February, 1598, to discharge Mr. Dicker out of the Counter in the Poultry, the some of Fortie Shillinges.' In another place Mr. Henslowe redeems Dekker out of the Clinke. THE PORCELAIN BATH: A LEGEND OF THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE. BY 'T. T. T.' THE gallant Si-Long, who, though yet quite a youth, had attained to high rank as a civil mandarin, was charged with an imperial message from Peking into the province of Honan. The object of his mission was to order the attendance in the capital of a celebrated physician, whose extensive astrological lore had enabled him successfully to combat all diseases, and had spread his fame throughout the northern provinces of China. The Emperor had been seized with a sudden sickness, which appeared the more dangerous, as the physicians of his court admitted their ignorance of its nature; and were at a loss whether to ascribe it to hot or cold humours, to the influence of some undetected comet, to too great a prevalence of red, white, green, or yellow, in the furniture of the palace and the foliage and ornaments of the gardens, or to the withering of a peach-tree in a court of the imperial residence. It was necessary, as the doctors were undecided in opinion, to seek some further advice; and none, it was considered, was so able to supply it, as Nu-Moun, the mighty astrologer. To him, therefore, Si-Long was sent; and, mounted on his fiery Tartar steed, which, however, was more remarkable for his roadway capabilities than for his beauty or condition, the young mandarin had proceeded indefatigably for some days, when on his making inquiries at a barber's shop, where he dismounted for a few minutes to get shaven and shampooed, he learned that he had arrived within thirty ly of Honan, and was distant six or seven only from the residence of the physician. The situation of the latter was pointed out to him from that spot. It lay a little out of the high road, and he struck across to it accordingly. Nu-Moun had retired from the general practice of his art, being of studious habits, and fond of retirement; and he now lived in a small country house in a sequestered spot, with the companionship only of a daughter; his wife having died some years since without other offspring. Si-Long had no difficulty in discovering the villa, as the spot was on the slope of a hill opposite to the path by which he approached, and was sufficiently marked by a group of bamboos, among which the house was hidden. No other habitations were in its vicinity except huts of the meanest class. Si-Long had just reached the gateway, and was congratulating himself on having finished his toilsome journey, when an unfortunate circumstance occurred. He intended to have alighted there, and to have proceeded on foot towards the house; and he had already gone over in his mind the bows, the bends, turns, gestures, and verbal compliments necessary to be observed; both those set down in the ritual code, a copy of which he carried in his bosom, and those which the College of Forms and Ceremonies had appointed for the particular occasion. But just as he was about to rein up his Bucephalus (called Jee-Wop in the language of China,) the astrologer himself, who at the moment was walking in the garden, appeared at the gate; and the steed taking fright at his spectacles (of which, of course, as the wisest man in the empire, he wore the largest pair), reared right on end, by which unexpected evolution the young mandarin was thrown, whilst yet more unfortunately the horse fell upon him. The philosopher hastened to his assistance; that is to say, he ran away as fast as he could, and called loudly for help. Persons came, and poor Si-Long was released; but one of his legs and five of his ribs were broken. When the physician had recovered from his fright, he went into his house to see the luckless youth, whom the servants had conveyed thither. He dismounted the majestic spectacles that jockeyed his own reverend nose, wiped the crystals in the bow of his pig-tail, and by means of two silken cords which passed behind his ears, and which for greater gravity were finished with huge tassels, again suspended them in their place. He approached the bed, and, by a catechism of learned questions, soon ascertained that the youth was seriously hurt, but in what particular way he was not able to discover. He repaired therefore to his observatory, that he might hold a consultation with the stars and it was soon decided between them that the case of the young equestrian was desperate, and that a raging fever would be followed by his speedy death. Under these circumstances, there was little to be done but to prescribe some medicines and several ceremonies; of which the former were rather intended to facilitate death, and dispose the body to suffer embalming kindly, than to ward away a fate which was considered inevitable. The patient, however, was not yet so far gone but that he remembered the object of his mission, and delivered to the astrologer the written order commanding his immediate departure for Peking. Nu-Moun was startled at this communication, and seizing in each hand the pullies of his spectacles, and drawing them downwards with some force, so as to fix the lenses more firmly in their place, he proceeded to examine the letter. No sooner did he perceive that it was signed at top with the imperial signature than, placing it reverentially on a small table, and supporting it against a vase, he performed the kow-to before it; that is to say, he knelt three times, and struck his forehead nine times against the floor. This done, he took the epistle, and squatting down cross-legged upon a mat, perused the document with great attention. the The Emperor's well-known liberality was such, that it was certain the service thus required of the physician would not be meanly rewarded. But Nu-Moun had shown how little regard he paid to the acquisition of wealth, by foregoing a profitable and honourable profession just when he had attained, by general acknowledgment, the highest rank therein, and retiring to dwell in an humble manner in a secluded country place. Yet, as he read, there was a smile upon countenance of the philosopher, and his eyes were expanded with a pleasant surprise almost to the size of the spectacle lenses. This did not arise from any prospective calculation of the emolument to accrue from his visit. The high honour conferred upon him was that by which his great mind was so gratified; and the privilege he should enjoy of beholding his august sovereign, for whom he entertained the most filial and profound veneration. Had it been otherwise than agreeable, the Emperor's mandate must not the less have been obeyed. The physician prepared, therefore, to commence his journey by the dawn of day. There was, however, one matter which caused him some uneasiness, and it will not be difficult to divine what that might be. The young Si-Long was bruised and battered in a manner that rendered it impossible, without the utmost inhumanity, to attempt his removal from the house; and the philosopher's daughter, a beautiful young lady, just arrived at a marriageable age, must be left under the same roof with him, without any guardian, and with only the fellowship of two or three domestics. This was certainly awkward; although of real danger there could be little or none; for the maiden was discreet, and the youth a youth of honour and of several broken bones. But the situation of affairs was such as admitted of no remedy; and the certainty that Si-Long had not long to live was a source of consolation to Nu-Moun. The physician, before his departure, at the same time that he gave her much other very sensible advice, recommended his daughter to keep herself, during his visit to the capital, entirely to her own apartments; but desired her to make inquiries daily concerning the health of the young invalid, and to be sure that the domestics were not wanting in attention to him. To them also he gave discreet rules of conduct, and instructed them how to act upon the death of the stranger; an event which he stated would take place in about ten days. He departed, and his dutiful daughter began the management of affairs in his absence with the properest circumspection. She ordered that several screens should be expanded in the passage that separated her apartment from that in which the young man was placed; and was careful as much as possible, though several walls were between them, to keep her back turned in that direction. A female servant, who was old and ugly, was occasionally engaged in attendance on the youth. From her the beautiful TouKeen learned that he was handsome and had a pleasant voice. She soon found that it was awkward to be constantly moving backwards or sideways, and relaxed the severity of her observance in that particular. Contrary to all expectation, Si-Long survived the tenth day, and at the expiration of that time showed evident symptoms of improvement. Tou-Keen, in obedience to her father's desire, received a daily report of his progress from her old attendant; and, with great consideration for his health, when she found that he was gaining strength, ordered that the screens might be removed, to admit of the better ventilation of his apartment. After the lapse of a few weeks he could rise from his bed and move about the chamber; and she then recommended that he should take exercise in the passage, which was of greater extent. The youth, whose feelings of propriety were of the properest description, finding himself so far recovered, considered it time, though he was still weak, to leave a house where accident had placed him under circumstances of so delicate a nature; and he, therefore, with every due form, sent in his compliments to his youthful hostess, to express his gratitude for the attentions he had received, and bid her a respectful farewell. Tou-Keen, however, thought it would not be becoming, in the absence of her father, that a visitor should be suffered to quit the house without receiving the usual compliments and politeness due to a guest; and feeling thus, she very properly resolved to act as the representative of her papa on this particular occasion. She accordingly went into the passage to bid, on the part of her sire, a formal adieu to Si-Long; but the moment she beheld his pale cheek and sunken eye, she perceived how improper, how dangerous it would be, for him to encounter the fatigue of a removal so soon. With the greatest delicacy, however, he persisted in his purpose; with the greatest hospitality she, upon the part of her father, insisted that he should prolong his stay. Their polite contest lasted just four hours and sixteen minutes, in which time they acted through every section of the two hundred and fifty-seventh book of the Code of Forms and Ceremonies that being the portion which treats of the departure of a guest. In the end Si-Long was vanquished-as how could it be otherwise?—and he promised to defer his departure. The ice was broken-it had not been thick-and a warm fountain of love sprung up in the hearts of the young people. Thenceforth they were much together; they could not be happy apart; they sighed sighs; they vowed vows; in fine, they arranged a little scheme for boating it together down the current of matrimonial felicity. Nu-Moun was detained in Peking longer than he anticipated. At last, however, he succeeded in taking his revered master the Emperor off the sick-list,-though, unfortunately, only by placing him upon the bills of mortality. Communicating to his daughter intelligence of this circumstance, he gave her to understand that he should return home in a very few days: and Si-Long had no longer any difficulty in persuading his betrothed that he was so far convalescent as to admit, without imprudence, of his taking his immediate departure. Before he went, however, it was settled between the pair that the young lady should obtain her sire's consent to their union, and induce him, as soon as preliminaries could be arranged, to convey her to Peking for the performance of the marriage ceremonies. So Si-Long at last departed, and in a few days Nu-Moun returned. The physician was astonished to find that the young mandarin had gone, not having been aware that he had so far recovered as even to leave his chamber. He was more surprised, and not altogether pleased, to discover that the screens, of which his daughter's first letter had made mention, had been so soon displaced; and his spectacles assumed a larger appearance than ever when he heard of the subsequent progress of events. His pig-tail grew exceedingly uneasy, waving in gentle undulations, and occasionally coiling round his shoulders; and, lighting his pipe with great precipitation, he began to smoke with so much energy as to wrinkle up the bamboo, and contract it in length some inches. Now the fact is that Nu-Moun would have excused his daughter's imprudence, and would have made no objection to her marriage with a young mandarin of so much repute as Si-Long, had it not chanced that he had formed a little plot of his own, with which that of the young people might materially interfere. A fortunate conjunction of stars had suggested the idea, and the more he had pondered upon it, the more it had delighted him. Need it be said that Tou-Keen would not have been fixed upon as the heroine of this story, had she not been at that precise period the most |