y walk in, and I shall be happy to give you any
information respecting the manners and customs of the Chinese in my
power.' Thereupon I followed him into his shop, where he began to
harangue on the manners, customs, and peculiarities of the Chinese,
especially their manner of preparing tea, not forgetting to tell me that
the only genuine Chinese tea ever imported into England was to be found
in his shop. 'With respect to those marks,' said he, 'on the bowl and
the chests, they are nothing more nor less than Chinese writing
expressing something, though what I can't exactly tell you. Allow me to
sell you this pound of tea,' he added, showing me a paper parcel. 'On
the envelope there is a printed account of the Chinese system of writing,
extracted from authors of the most established reputation. These things
I print, principally with the hope of, in some degree, removing the worse
than Gothic ignorance prevalent amongst the natives of these parts. I am
from London myself. With respect to all that relates to the Chinese real
imperial tea, I assure you, sir that . . . ' Well to make short of what
you doubtless consider a very tiresome story, I purchased the tea and
carried it home. The tea proved imperially bad, but the paper envelope
really contained some information on the Chinese language and writing,
amounting to about as much as you gained from me the other day. On
learning that the marks on the teapot expressed words, I felt my interest
with respect to them considerably increased, and returned to the task of
inspecting them with greater zeal than before, hoping, by continually
looking at them, to be able eventually to understand their meaning, in
which hope you may easily believe I was disappointed, though my desire to
understand what they represented continued on the increase. In this
dilemma I determined to apply again to the shopkeeper from whom I bought
the tea. I found him in rather low spirits, his shirt-sleeves were
soiled, and his hair was out of curl. On my inquiring how he got on, he
informed me that he intended speedily to leave, having received little or
no encouragement, the people, in their Gothic ignorance, preferring to
deal with an old-fashioned shopkeeper over the way, who, so far from
possessing any acquaintance with the polity and institutions of the
Chinese, did not, he firmly believed, know that tea came from China. 'You
are come for some more, I suppose?' said he. On receiving an answ