to take a cup of tea or some chow-chow; and you wonder how they manage to get a living where so many sell the same kind of article. 7. Farther on are to be seen carpenters busy at packing-cases, cabinet-makers hammering away at camphor-wood chests, brassworkers clattering away, making bowls or gongs; while at every step are met sellers of water, vegetables, fish, soup, fruit, &c., with as many cries, and just as unintelligible, as those of London. Others carry a portable cooking apparatus on a pole, balanced by a table at the other end, and serve up a meal of shell-fish, rice and vegetables, for a few cash; while coolies, boatmen, and others, waiting to be hired, are everywhere to be met with. 8. Here are dentists, letter-writers, fortune-tellers, and hawkers of odds and ends, in all directions; while the barbers have plenty to do, shaving heads and cleaning ears; water-carriers, bearers of Sedan chairs, coming and going in all directions, dressed in their peculiar national costume, with their long tails either wound about their heads or trailing down behind. The streets of Hong Kong offer a thousand reflections to those who have never been brought in contact with the celestial race. 9. The restaurants, grog shops, tea-houses, and gambling saloons are very numerous, and under strict surveillance of the police; but what usually at first arrests the attention of the stranger are the numerous little niches along the street sacred to Joss, where at certain hours are burnt strips of coloured paper and scented sticks, for some mysterious rite known only to those strange people. To see them at their chow-chow is of itself a treat, for it is all done openly in their shops which have no glass fronts to them, as we are accustomed to see in most European cities. The Chinese have the character of being most patient in poverty, if it befalls them; they will live on rice alone and suffer without murmuring. A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a lazy one scarcely exists; so long as they have strength to use their hands, they need no support from anybody. Europeans often complain of want of work, but a Chinaman never does; he always manages to find something to do; consequently, beggars are but seldom met with amongst them. en'terprise, an under- SPELL AND PRONOUNCE- cash, a Chinese coin. inva'riably, constantly uniformly. unintelligible, what cannot be understood. surveillance, watch, inspection. KUBLA KHAN.*-S. T. COLERIDGE. A VISION IN A DREAM. COLERIDGE was a poet of high genius, but his indolent, irresolute temperament hindered continuous exertion, and thus his poetry is rather a promise of what he might have done, than a performance fully worthy of his powers. He was an exquisite prose writer, an acute philosopher, and an earnest theologian. He was born in 1772; and died in 1834. 5 IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree:1 So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous 2 rills Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; 10 And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh! that deep romantic chasm 3 which slanted 15 As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, 5 A mighty fountain momently was forced : And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far * KUBLA KHAN. The Grand Khan or Sultan of the Moguls, who conquered China, and established the present dynasty. A.D. 1259-1294. These lines were written by Coleridge, from the recollections of a dream in which, strange to say, they were composed. He says that he was for three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, and "has the most vivid confidence that he could not have composed less than from three to four hundred lines" during the time. He had proceeded as far as the following fragment goes, in writing off his recollections, when an unfortunate interruption scattered his thoughts. The shadow of the dome of pleasure Where was heard the mingled measure 35 It was a miracle of rare device, 40 A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice; In a vision once I saw : It was an Abyssinian" maid, To such a deep delight 'twould win me 45 That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! Those caves of ice! And drunk the milk of Paradise' 'decree', here, order to be built, 2 sin'uous, winding. 3 chasm, sharp hollow. 'ce'darn, of cedars. 5 mo'mently, every moment. 6 intermit'ted, stopping. NOTES. 9 ' mean'dering, winding. 8 voi'ces of his forefathers. 9 meas'ure, song. 10 dul'cimer, guitar. 11 Abyssin'ian, belonging to Abyssinia. 12 symphony, accompaniment. JOHN BUNYAN. 1. JOHN BUNYAN, the author of "The Pilgrim's Progress," was born at Elstow, near Bedford, in 1628. His father, and others of the family for generations before, had been tinkers, and Bunyan was brought up to the same occupation. 2. Yet, though, as he long afterwards wrote, "his father's house was of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the land," he was not left wholly uneducated, but was taught to read and write “according to the rate of other poor people's children," though, as he confesses, he soon almost en 9 tirely lost what little he had learned. His parents appear, likewise, to have taken care of his religious training, but as he grew up he abandoned himself to bad habits, such as gross swearing and other vices equally degrading, but he seems to have been honest, sober, and, at his worst, scrupulously free from licentious ness. 3. Bunyan married, early in life, a young woman of a religious family, but they were both "as poor as poor might be, not having so much household stuff as a dish or a spoon between them." She brought with her, however, two books which her father had left her at his death-"The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven" and "The Practice of Piety," which the two used to read together, not without great effect on Bunyan's future history. Meanwhile he himself had a trade to rely upon for his support and hers. 4. He had already become in some degree thoughtful from various incidents that had befallen him. One, especially, impressed him. In his eighteenth year he had been a soldier in the Parliamentary army, and had been drawn out to go to the siege of Leicester, but, one of the company wishing to go in his stead, Bunyan consented to exchange with him. This volunteer substitute, standing sentinel one day, was shot through the head with a musket ball. That he himself should thus have escaped death, by what seemed so marked a Providence, touched Bunyan's heart deeply. 5. Various other influences having led him to be a decidedly religious man, he joined a small congregation under the care of one who himself had been even more reckless, and after a year or two began preaching in the neighbouring villages. For some years he was allowed to do so without molestation, but in 1657 he was indicted at the assizes for preaching at Elstow. This happened while the country was still under Cromwell, so little was religious liberty understood by any party at that time. Nothing, however, beyond a reprimand, was inflicted on this occasion. 6. He was not, however, so fortunate after the Restoration, for in 1660 he was arrested for the same offence, and on his refusing to be silent, was confined in Bedford Jail for twelve years, from 1660 to 1672! Here he had only two books-the Bible and the Book of Martyrs-but he was allowed from the first to preach in the jail, which was then crowded with prisoners charged with having attended "conventicles." During the week he supported himself by making tagged laces-that is, by fixing metal ends on the laces then much used in dress. 7. His pen, moreover, afforded him a constant source of pleasure, his three best known books, "Grace Abounding," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and "The Holy War," having been written while he was in prison. is 8. Sixteen years of his life remained to him after his release, and these he spent in unresting activity, preaching to large congregations in Bedford and other places. That he was still poor only too evident from the humble house which was all he could afford, but his influence among the common people was immense, and it was entirely for good. 9. His death was caused by a journey undertaken to reconcile a father to his son, who for some cause had been disinherited. It was at Reading, and Bunyan's efforts were successful, but, returning to London on horseback, through a heavy rain, he contracted a fever, of which he died. He lies buried in Bunhill Fields. His second wife and three children survived him a blind daughter had died some time before. 10. Bunyan's greatest book is the "Pilgrim's Progress," of which the following is Macaulay's estimate:-"That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it. Dr. Johnson, |