On the manner of behaving of the male portion of those present this
person has no inducement whatever to linger. Even the maiden for whom
he had accomplished so much, after the nature of the misunderstanding
had been made plain to her, uttered only a single word of approval,
which, on subsequently consulting a book of interpretations, this
person found to indicate: "A person of weak intellect; one without an
adequate sense of the proportion and fitness of things; a buffoon; a
jester; a compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed with cream";
but although each of these definitions may in a way be regarded as
applicable, he is still unable to decide which was the precise one
intended.
With salutations of filial regard, and in a spirit seven times refined
by affliction and purified by vain regrets.
KONG HO.
(Upon whose tablet posterity will perchance inscribe the titles,
"Ill-destined but Misjudged.")
LETTER III
Concerning the virtuous amusements of both old and young. The
sit-round games. The masterpiece of the divine Li Tang, and
its reception by all, including that same Herbert.
VENERATED SIRE (whose breadth of mind is so well developed as to take
for granted boundless filial professions, which, indeed, become vapid
by a too frequent reiteration),--
Your amiable inquiry as to how the barbarians pass their time, when
not employed in affairs of commerce or in worshipping their ancestors,
has inspired me to examine the matter more fully.
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