The tidings, while I, grieving, sing
Thee to thy rest.
Ku Hung Ming.
Viceroy's Yamen,
Wuchang, December 4th, 1893."
The Englishman who could write as good a poem in Chinese has not yet been born; but I quote it because of the sentiment it expresses.
GUARD-HOUSE NEAR THE ARSENAL.
The young Chinese to whom I tried to teach English took leave of me, when I left for England, in very elegant Chinese verse, to which I wish I could do justice by translation. The sentiment of it was very appropriate. He regretted my departure, wondering what he should do without me; for to him I had been like the snow, which, by covering up and protecting the plants, makes the young shoots grow, as I had made his intelligence burgeon. This struck me as a very happy expression of sentiment, and, as I was assured by Chinese scholars, equally felicitously expressed.