CHAPTER XXXVII
CONCLUSION
THE PLEASURES OF A PHILOSOPHER
There are perhaps in China alone more philosophers than could be found in all the rest of the world put together. To give an idea of the ways of thinking of these thinkers, who take their pleasure where they can find it, I will let one of them speak:
“The song of birds and the cries of the swallows announce the advent of spring; the fine weather invites one to walk abroad. I should have liked to respond to this call from Nature; my daily occupations have prevented me. I met yesterday at the flower cottage a friend who blamed me for having failed to keep an appointment. I answered: ‘Ah, I am not free as you are to do what I choose. I live dependent on another, to whom I am subjected as a minor is to his guardian. Ah! if you could only know how many writing brushes and how much paper I use in the course of one year. In the face of this beautiful weather, where Nature is developing with renewed vigour, I can only envy the pleasures of others without being able to share in them myself. But in compensation I find pleasure in passing my days of leisure in the bosom of my family, surrounded by those I love.
“‘When seated by my fireside, I drink wine with my wife, and hold my children on my knees; I feel no other human ambition, and do not believe that the spirits in heaven are a whit happier than I am. Sometimes, as a change, we go and drink a cup of tea in the cottage, or look at the flowers in the garden. We are thus surrounded at home with joys which endure and do not change.