mate end which is symbolic of the
inexorable wheels of a larger Destiny.

VENERATED SIRE,--It is not for the earthworm to say when and in what
exact position the iron-shod boot shall descend, and this person, being
an even inferior creature for the purpose of the comparison, bows an
acquiescent neck to your very explicit command that he shall return to
Yuen-ping without delay. He cannot put away from his mind a clinging
suspicion that this arising is the result of some imperfection in
his deplorable style of correspondence, whereby you have formed an
impression quite opposed to that which it had been the intention to
convey, and that, perchance, you even have a secret doubt whether upon
some specified occasion he may not have conducted the enterprise to an
ignoble, or at least not markedly successful, end. However, the saying
runs, "The stone-cutter always has the last word," and you equally, by
intimating with your usual unanswerable and clear-sighted gift of
logic that no further allowance of taels will be sent for this one's
dispersal, diplomatically impose upon an ever-yearning son the most
feverish anxiety once more to behold your large and open-handed face.

Standing thus poised, as it may be said, for a returning flight across
the elements of separation, it is not inopportune for this person to let
himself dwell gracefully upon those lighter points of recollection which
have engraved themselves from time to time upon his mind without leading
to any more substantial adventure worthy to record. Many of the things
which seemed strange and incomprehensible when he first came among
this powerful though admittedly barbarian people, are now revealed at
a proper angle; others, to which he formerly imagined he had found the
disclosing key, are, on the other hand, plunged into a distorting haze;
while between these lie a multitude of details in every possible stage
of disentanglement and doubt. As a final and painstaking pronouncement,
this person has no hesitation in declaring that this country is
not--as practically all our former travellers have declared--completely
down-side-up as compared with our own manners and customs, but at the
same time it is very materially sideways.

Thus, instead of white, black robes are the indication of mourning; but
as, for the generality, the same colour is also used for occasions of
commerce, ceremony, religion, and the ordinary affairs of life, the
matter remains exactly as it was