rt of the ceramist. He had found the secret of the
_feng-hong_, the wizard flush of the Rose; of the _hoa-hong_, the
delicious incarnadine; of the mountain-green called _chan-lou_; of the
pale soft yellow termed _hiao-hoang-yeou_; and of the _hoang-kin_, which
is the blazing beauty of gold. He had found those eel-tints, those
serpent-greens, those pansy-violets, those furnace-crimsons, those
carminates and lilacs, subtle as spirit-flame, which our enamellists of
the Occident long sought without success to reproduce. But he trembled
at the task assigned him, as he returned to the toil of his studio,
saying: "How shall any miserable man render in clay the quivering of
flesh to an Idea,--the inexplicable horripilation of a Thought? Shall a
man venture to mock the magic of that Eternal Moulder by whose infinite
power a million suns are shapen more readily than one small jar might be
rounded upon my wheel?"

* * * * *

Yet the command of the Celestial and August might never be disobeyed;
and the patient workman strove with all his power to fulfil the Son of
Heaven's desire. But vainly for days, for weeks, for months, for season
after season, did he strive; vainly also he prayed unto the gods to aid
him; vainly he besought the Spirit of the Furnace, crying: "O thou
Spirit of Fire, hear me, heed me, help me! how shall I,--a miserable
man, unable to breathe into clay a living soul,--how shall I render in
this inanimate substance the aspect of flesh made to creep by the
utterance of a Word, sentient to the horripilation of a Thought?"

For the Spirit of the Furnace made strange answer to him with whispering
of fire: "_Vast thy faith, weird thy prayer! Has Thought feet, that man
may perceive the trace of its passing? Canst thou measure me the blast
of the Wind?_"

* * * * *

Nevertheless, with purpose unmoved, nine-and-forty times did Pu seek to
fulfil the Emperor's command; nine-and-forty times he strove to obey the
behest of the Son of Heaven. Vainly, alas! did he consume his substance;
vainly did he expend his strength; vainly did he exhaust his knowledge:
success smiled not upon him; and Evil visited his home, and Poverty sat
in his dwelling, and Misery shivered at his hearth.

Sometimes, when the hour of trial came, it was found that the colors had
become strangely transmuted in the firing, or had faded into ashen
pallor, or had darkened into the fuliginous