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'Who should interfere?' he said. 'Why shouldn't every man amuse himself
as he can? But yet for all that we've got our masters,' he cried with a
scowl, waving his clinched fist in the direction of the mines; 'you'll
find it out when you get there.'
It was a long time after this before I ventured to move, for here it
se... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'Not till you tell me,' I cried. 'Tell me and I'll protect you. If they
come near I'll let you go. Who are they, man? I must know.'
He struggled up from the ground, clearing his hot eyes from the ashes
that were in them, and putting aside his singed hair. He gave me a glance
of hatred and impotent resistance (for I wa... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
Fear can act in two ways: it paralyzes, and it renders cunning. At this
moment I found it inspire me. I made my plans before I started, how to
steal along under the cover of the blighted brushwood which broke the
line of the valley here and there. I set out only after long thought,
seizing the moment when the vaguely ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
While I stooped over, intent on the sight, some one who had come up by
my side to gaze too was caught by the fumes (as I suppose), for suddenly
I was aware of a dark object falling prone into the glowing interior with
a cry and crash which brought back my first wild panic. He fell in a
heap, from which his arms shot f... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
When I came to myself, it seemed to me that there was a change in the
atmosphere and the light. It was less lurid, paler, gray, more like
twilight than the stormy afternoon of the other city. A certain dead
serenity was in the sky,--black paleness, whiteness, everything faint in
it. This town was walled, but the gates... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
I will not say that I believed even what I tried to think. Something in
me lay like a dark shadow in the midst of all my theories; but yet I
succeeded to a great degree in convincing myself that the hope in me was
real, and that I was but now beginning--beginning with at least a
possibility that all might be well. In ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
In the mean time I was hurried on, meeting a great many people who took
no notice of me, to a central building in the middle of the town, where I
was brought before an official attended by clerks, with great books
spread out before him. Here I was questioned as to my name and my
antecedents and the time of my arrival,... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
I do not know how long I sat, rapt in this gloomy vision; but at last it
occurred to me to rise and try the door, which to my astonishment was
open. I went out with a throb of new hope. After all, it might not be
necessary to come back. There might be other expedients; I might fall
among friends. I turned down the lon... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
Soon after I returned I became conscious of measured steps passing the
door, and of an eye upon me. I can say no more than this. From what point
it was that I was inspected I cannot tell; but that I was inspected,
closely scrutinized by some one, and that not only externally, but by a
cold observation that went throug... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
In one of my long, dreary, companionless walks, unshared by any human
fellowship, I saw at last a face which I remembered; it was that of the
cynical spectator who had spoken to me in the noisy street, in the
midst of my early experiences. He gave a glance round him to see that
there were no officials in sight, then l... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'Have you chosen?' I asked.
He only answered with a laugh. 'Come,' he said, 'there is amusement to be
had too, and that of the most elevated kind. We make researches here into
the moral nature of man. Will you come? But you must take the risk,' he
added with a smile which afterwards I understood.
We went on together a... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
Then some one got up on the platform above me and began to speak. He
said, so far as I could comprehend in the anguish and torture in which I
was held, that the origin of thought was the question he was
investigating, but that in every previous subject the confusion of ideas
had bewildered them, and the rapidity with ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
While this lasted, it seemed to me that I had a dream. I felt the blows
raining down upon me, and my body struggling upon the ground; and yet
it seemed to me that I was lying outside upon the ground, and above me
the pale sky which never brightened at the touch of the sun. And I
thought that dull, persistent cloud wav... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'I am a stranger here,' I cried. 'They have made my brain burn with their
experiments. Will nobody help me? It is no fault of mine, it is their
fault. If I am to be left here uncared for, I shall die.'
At this a sort of dreadful chuckle ran round the place. 'If that is what
you are afraid of, you will not die,' somebo... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
When my thoughts reached this point I was answered by the voice of some
one on a level with myself, lying helpless like me on the floor of the
lazar-house. 'They have taken their precautions,' he said; 'if they will
not endure the sight of suffering, how should they hear the sound of it?
Every cry is silenced there.'
... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'I shall be here,' he said, 'till I am able to begin again.'
'To begin! Is there here, then, either beginning or ending? Go on; speak
to me; it makes me a little forget my pain.'
'I have a fire in my heart,' he said; 'I must begin and begin--till
perhaps I find the way.'
'What way?' I cried, feverish and eager; for th... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'Not that way,' I said; 'come with me and rest.'
'No rest--no rest--my rest is to go on;' and then he turned towards me
and smiled and said, 'Thanks'--looking into my face. What a word to hear!
I had not heard it since--A rush of strange and sweet and dreadful
thoughts came into my mind. I shrank and trembled, and let... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'Friend,' he said, 'before you were born into the pleasant earth I had
come here. I have gone all the weary round. Listen to one who knows: all
is harder, harder, as you go on. You are stirred to go on by the
restlessness in your heart, and each new place you come to, the spirit of
that place enters into you. You are ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
He reached me his hand and went on without a word; and I with terror
crept after him, treading in his steps, following like his shadow. What
it was to walk with another, and follow, and be at one, is more than I
can tell; but likewise my heart failed me for fear, for dread of what we
might encounter, and of hearing th... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'I am afraid; I am afraid!' I cried.
'And I too am afraid; but it is better to suffer more and to escape than
to suffer less and to remain.'
'Has it ever been known that one escaped? No one has ever escaped. This
is our place,' I said; 'there is no other world.'
'There are other worlds; there is a world where every wa... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
I went on to the city of the evening light. Ever and ever, as I proceeded
on my way, the sense of haste and restless impatience grew upon me, so
that I felt myself incapable of remaining long in a place, and my desire
grew stronger to hasten on and on; but when I entered the gates of the
city this longing vanished fro... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
In the mean time the music and the dance went on. But it began to
surprise me a little that there was no pause, that the festival continued
without intermission. I went up to one of those who seemed the masters of
ceremony, directing what was going on. He was an old man, with a flowing
robe of brocade, and a chain and... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'Yes,' I said, though with surprise, for I had not yet acknowledged
that even to myself. 'There is so much to enjoy. We have need of a
little rest.'
'Of rest!' said she, shaking her head, 'this is not the place for rest.'
'Yet pleasure requires it,' I said, 'as much as--' I was about to say
pain; but why should one sp... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
How at last I stumbled forth I cannot tell. Desperation must have moved
me, and that impatience which after every hope and disappointment comes
back and back,--the one sensation that never fails. I dragged myself at
last by intervals, like a sick dog, outside the revels, still hearing
them, which was torture to me, ev... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
The waste stretched far as eyes could see. It was wild and terrible, with
neither vegetation nor sign of life. Here and there were heaps of ruin,
which had been villages and cities; but nothing was in them save reptiles
and crawling poisonous life and traps for the unwary wanderer. How often
I stumbled and fell among ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
'They are like living things,' I said; 'they do your bidding, whatever
you command them. They are like another and a stronger race of men.'
'Men!' he said, 'what are men? The most contemptible of all things that
are made,--creatures who will undo in a moment what it has taken
millions of years, and all the skill and a... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
He laughed, and the echoes caught the sound and gave it back as if
they mocked it. 'There is enough to rend us all into shreds,' he said,
'and shake, as you say, both heaven and earth, and these plains and
those hills.'
'Then why,' I cried in my haste, with a dreadful hope piercing through my
soul--'why do you create ... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
The master gave me his hand to help me to rise, and it trembled, but not
like mine.
'Sir,' I cried, 'have not we enough to bear? Is it for hatred, is it for
vengeance, that you speak that name?'
'O friend,' he said, 'neither for hatred nor revenge. It is like a fire
in my veins; if one could find Him again!'
'You, who... | The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 10 | {'Death -- Fiction'} | PG10051 | |
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE OPEN DOOR, AND THE PORTRAIT
Stories of the Seen and the Unseen
By Margaret O. Wilson Oliphant
1881
I
THE OPEN DOOR.
I took the house of Brentwood on my return from India in ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
Brentwood stands on that fine and wealthy slope of country--one of the
richest in Scotland--which lies between the Pentland Hills and the
Firth. In clear weather you could see the blue gleam--like a bent bow,
embracing the wealthy fields and scattered houses--of the great estuary
on one side of you, and on the other t... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
The summer was a very happy period of repose for us all. The warmth of
Indian suns was still in our veins. It seemed to us that we could never
have enough of the greenness, the dewiness, the freshness of the northern
landscape. Even its mists were pleasant to us, taking all the fever out
of us, and pouring in vigor an... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
But I was confident in my home-comfort and peacefulness. When I got back
to my club, however, three or four letters were lying for one, upon some
of which I noticed the “immediate,” “urgent,” which old-fashioned people
and anxious people still believe will influence the post-office and
quicken the speed of the mails. ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I hurried off that evening, as may be supposed, with an anxious heart.
How I got through the hours before the starting of the train, I cannot
tell. We must all be thankful for the quickness of the railway when in
anxiety; but to have thrown myself into a post-chaise as soon as horses
could be put to, would have been a... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I looked at him from the door of his room, for we were afraid to go near,
lest we should disturb that blessed sleep. It looked like actual sleep,
not the lethargy into which my wife told me he would sometimes fall. She
told me everything in the next room, which communicated with his, rising
now and then and going to t... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Yes, yes, my boy, I know. But you are ill, and quiet is so necessary.
You are not only not a fool, Roland, but you are reasonable and
understand. When you are ill you must deny yourself; you must not do
everything that you might do being well.”
He waved his thin hand with a sort of indignation. “Then, father, I am
no... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Hush, my dear; you remember there is to be no excitement. Well, who
is this somebody, and who has been ill-using him? We will soon put
a stop to that.”
“All,” cried Roland, “but it is not so easy as you think. I don’t know
who it is. It is just a cry. Oh, if you could hear it! It gets into my
head in my sleep. I hear... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“We must not blame Simson for being a doctor, Roland.”
“No, no,” said my boy, with delightful toleration and indulgence; “oh,
no; that’s the good of him; that’s what he’s for; I know that. But
you--you are different; you are just father; and you’ll do
something--directly, papa, directly; this very night.”
“Surely,” I ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“It will be there now!--it will be there all the night! Oh, think,
papa,--think if it was me! I can’t rest for thinking of it. Don’t!” he
cried, putting away my hand,--“don’t! You go and help it, and mother can
take care of me.”
“But, Roland, what can I do?”
My boy opened his eyes, which were large with weakness and f... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
* * * * *
“Noises?--ou ay, there’ll be noises,--the wind in the trees, and the
water soughing down the glen. As for tramps, Cornel, no, there’s little
o’ that kind o’ cattle about here; and Merran at the gate’s a careful
body.” Jarvis moved about with some embarrassment from one leg to
a... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Do you call my child’s life nothing?” I said in the trouble of the
moment, unable to restrain myself. “And instead of telling this all to
me, you have told it to him,--to a delicate boy, a child unable to sift
evidence or judge for himself, a tender-hearted young creature--”
I was walking about the room with an anger... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
This was true enough, though it did not throw any light upon my
perplexity. If we had heard of it to start with, it is possible that all
the family would have considered the possession of a ghost a distinct
advantage. It is the fashion of the times. We never think what a risk it
is to play with young imaginations, but... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Well?” I said.
“But eh, sir!” he went on, with the same imbecile yet insinuating smile,
“if ye’ll reflect that I am no used to my feet. With a horse atween my
legs, or the reins in my hand, I’m maybe nae worse than other men; but on
fit, Cornel--It’s no the--bogles--but I’ve been cavalry, ye see,” with a
little hoars... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I got home I don’t quite know how; but in my mind there was no longer
any indifference as to the thing, whatever it was, that haunted these
ruins. My scepticism disappeared like a mist. I was as firmly determined
that there was something as Roland was. I did not for a moment pretend
to myself that it was possible I co... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Poachers, Colonel?” he said, a gleam of pleasure running all over him.
“No, Bagley; a great deal worse,” I cried.
“Yes, Colonel; at what hour, sir?” the man said; but then I had not told
him what it was.
It was ten o’clock when we set out. All was perfectly quiet indoors. My
wife was with Roland, who had been quite c... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“An owl,” I said, under my breath. “Y--es, Colonel,” said Bagley, his
teeth chattering. We stood still about five minutes, while it broke into
the still brooding of the air, the sound widening out in circles, dying
upon the darkness. This sound, which is not a cheerful one, made me
almost gay. It was natural, and reli... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I went myself to the other side of the wall, keeping close to it. The
light shook in Bagley’s hand, but, tremulous though it was, shone out
through the vacant door, one oblong block of light marking all the
crumbling corners and hanging masses of foliage. Was that something dark
huddled in a heap by the side of it? I ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Do you hear it, Bagley? do you hear what it is saying?” I cried,
stepping in through the door-way. He was lying against the wall, his eyes
glazed, half dead with terror. He made a motion of his lips as if to
answer me, but no sounds came; then lifted his hand with a curious
imperative movement as if ordering me to be... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
* * * * *
“You’ve got an epidemic in your house, Colonel,” Simson said to me next
morning. “What’s the meaning of it all? Here’s your butler raving about a
voice. This will never do, you know; and so far as I can make out, you
are in it too.”
“Yes, I am in it, Doctor. I thought I had bet... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“You are cool,” said the Doctor. “You’ve disabled this poor fellow of
yours, and made him--on that point--a lunatic for life; and now you want
to disable me. But, for once, I’ll do it. To save appearance, if you’ll
give me a bed, I’ll come over after my last rounds.”
It was agreed that I should meet him at the gate, a... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I will not deny that I was disappointed beyond measure by this result. It
made me look like a credulous fool. It gave the Doctor such a pull over
me as nothing else could. I should point all his morals for years to
come; and his materialism, his scepticism, would be increased beyond
endurance. “It seems, indeed,” I sa... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
We walked home very silent afterwards. It was only when we were in sight
of the house that I said, “What do you think of it?” “I can’t tell what
to think of it,” he said quickly. He took--though he was a very temperate
man--not the claret I was going to offer him, but some brandy from the
tray, and swallowed it almost... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I don’t think I had any feeling about this as I turned away from that
common bustle of the railway which made my private preoccupations feel so
strangely out of date. There had been a distinct satisfaction in my mind
before, that his scepticism had been so entirely defeated. But the more
serious part of the matter pre... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I can scarcely say that Dr. Moncrieff gave me any advice. How could any
one advise on such a subject? But he said, “I think I’ll come too. I’m an
old man; I’m less liable to be frightened than those that are further off
the world unseen. It behooves me to think of my own journey there. I’ve
no cut-and-dry beliefs on t... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
But what was strangest of all was, that I could not face Roland. I did
not go up to his room, as I would have naturally done, at once. This the
girls could not understand. They saw there was some mystery in it.
“Mother has gone to lie down,” Agatha said; “he has had such a good
night.” “But he wants you so, papa!” cri... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
And what occurred was exactly the same, with the same air of repetition,
point for point, as I had formerly remarked. I declare that it seemed to
me as if I were pushed against, put aside, by the owner of the voice as
he paced up and down in his trouble,--though these are perfectly futile
words, seeing that the stream... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
He seemed to wait for an answer. When his voice ceased, his countenance,
every line moving, continued to speak. Simson gave me another terrible
shock, stealing into the open door-way with his light, as much
awe-stricken, as wildly curious, as I. But the minister resumed, without
seeing Simson, speaking to some one els... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Lord,” the minister said,--“Lord, take him into Thy everlasting
habitations. The mother he cries to is with Thee. Who can open to him but
Thee? Lord, when is it too late for Thee, or what is too hard for Thee?
Lord, let that woman there draw him inower! Let her draw him inower!”
I sprang forward to catch something in... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“But not alone. I am going with you, Doctor.”
“Well, I will not oppose it. I am an old man, and agitation wearies more
than work. Yes; I’ll be thankful of your arm. To-night, Colonel, you’ve
done me more good turns than one.”
I pressed his hand on my arm, not feeling able to speak. But Simson,
who turned with us, and ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Far from that--better. God bless him!” Dr. Moncrieff said.
I think if Simson had begun again to me with his questions, I should have
pitched him over the rocks as we returned up the glen; but he was silent,
by a good inspiration. And the sky was clearer than it had been for many
nights, shining high over the trees, w... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
* * * * *
I must add one curious fact, which does not seem to me to have any
relation to the above, but which Simson made great use of, as the human
agency which he was determined to find somehow. We had examined the ruins
very closely at the time of these occurrences; but afterwards, wh... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
II
THE PORTRAIT
At the period when the following incidents occurred, I was living with my
father at The Grove, a large old house in the immediate neighborhood of a
little town. This had been his home for a number of years; and I believe
I was born in it. It was a kind of house which, notwithstanding all the
red and ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I may say here, though it will probably be disappointing to those who
form a sentimental idea of the capabilities of children, that it did
not occur to me either, in these early days, to make any inquiry about
my mother. There was no room in life, as I knew it, for any such
person; nothing suggested to my mind either ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
But it was only at rare intervals that I went home. In the long vacation,
as in my school holidays, my father often went abroad with me, so that we
had gone over a great deal of the Continent together very pleasantly. He
was old in proportion to the age of his son, being a man of sixty when I
was twenty, but that did ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“I don’t see any difference, sir,” said I; “everything here seems exactly
the same as when I went away--”
He smiled, and shook his head. “It is true enough,” he said; “after we
have reached a certain age we seem to go on for a long time on a
plane, and feel no great difference from year to year; but it is an
inclined ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
It was possibly my own want of occupation which made me observe with
surprise, after a while, how much occupied my father was. He had
expressed himself glad of my return; but now that I had returned, I saw
very little of him. Most of his time was spent in his library, as had
always been the case. But on the few visits... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I felt more disposed to be angry than disturbed by this. “You must be
making some ridiculous mistake,” I said. “And if you were not so old a
friend as you are, Morphew, I should not have allowed my father to be so
spoken of to me.”
The old man gave me a half-astonished, half-contemptuous look. “He’s been
my master a d... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“What do you want with me?” I said.
Then she poured forth suddenly, without warning or preparation, her long
speech,--a flood of words which must have been all ready and waiting at
the doors of her lips for utterance. “Oh, sir, I want to speak to you! I
can’t believe you’ll be so hard, for you’re young; and I can’t be... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
She began to whimper, crying and stopping herself. “Oh, please, sir! it’s
Mr. Canning as owns all the house property about; it’s him that our court
and the lane and everything belongs to. And he’s taken the bed from under
us, and the baby’s cradle, although it’s said in the Bible as you’re not
to take poor folks’ bed.... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“My agent? Who is that?” said my father quietly.
“I don’t know his name, and I doubt his competence. The poor creature
seems to have had everything taken from her,--her bed, her child’s
cradle.”
“No doubt she was behind with her rent.”
“Very likely, sir. She seemed very poor,” said I.
“You take it coolly,” said my fat... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Is that so very extraordinary?” he said.
“No; of course it is not extraordinary that I should resemble my mother.
Only--I have heard very little of her--almost nothing.”
“That is true.” He got up and placed himself before the fire, which was
very low, as the night was not cold--had not been cold heretofore at
least; ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Oh, it is not important,” I said; “the awe was childish. I have not
thought of it since I came home.”
“It never was anything very splendid at the best,” said he. He lifted the
lamp from the table with a sort of abstraction, not remarking even my
offer to take it from him, and led the way. He was on the verge of
seven... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
My father made me no reply. He stood aside, looking at it as if he knew
it too well to require to look,--as if the picture was already in his
eyes. “Yes,” he said, after an interval, with a long-drawn breath, “she
was a lovely girl, as you say.”
“Was?--then she is dead. What a pity!” I said; “what a pity! so young and... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
Presently my father came back, possibly because I had been a long time
unconscious of the passage of the minutes, or perhaps because he was
himself restless in the strange disturbance of his habitual calm. He came
in and put his arm within mine, leaning his weight partially upon me,
with an affectionate suggestion whi... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I pressed his arm again. “Father,” I said, which was a title I seldom
used, “we are not to suppose that in a higher life the mind stands
still.” I did not feel myself qualified to discuss such topics, but
something one must say.
“Worse, worse!” he replied; “then she too will be, like me, a different
being, and we shal... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
No need to ask what they were. No woman’s work had been seen in the house
since I could recollect it. I gathered them up reverently and put them
back. I could see, ignorant as I was, that the bit of knitting was
something for an infant. What could I do less than put it to my lips? It
had been left in the doing--for me... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“That looks like kindness,” said I.
“Yes; or something else. He might have thought that by so doing he was
establishing a claim upon me,” my father said; but he did not seem
disposed to add any more. On whose behalf he meant to establish a claim I
did not know, nor who the man was who had laid us under so great an
obl... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“My good woman,--I--have been greatly occupied. I have had--no time to do
anything.”
“Ah!” she said, with a little cry of disappointment, “my man said not to
make too sure, and that the ways of the gentlefolks is hard to know.”
“I cannot explain to you,” I said, as gently as I could, “what it is that
has made me forge... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
Morphew came back to my room after my visitor was gone. “Mr. Philip,” he
said, “you’ll excuse me, sir, but if you’re going to pay all the poor
folks’ rent as have distresses put in, you may just go into the court at
once, for it’s without end--”
“I am going to be the agent myself, Morphew, and manage for my father;
an... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Act of oppression,” he said, with a smile--“piece of cruelty,
exaction--there are half-a-dozen words--”
“Sir--” I cried.
“Stop, Phil, and let us understand each other. I hope I have always been
a just man. I do my duty on my side, and I expect it from others. It is
your benevolence that is cruel. I have calculated an... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I was seated with a book before me on the table, with my head supported
on my hands. My eyes were on the printed page, but I was not reading; my
mind was full of these thoughts, my heart of great discouragement and
despondency,--a sense that I could do nothing, yet that there surely must
and ought, if I but knew it, b... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
When I could bear this no longer I got up and walked about my room; then
having still a certain command of myself, though I could not master the
commotion within me, I deliberately took down an exciting book from the
shelf, a book of breathless adventure which had always interested me, and
tried with that to break the... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
My father had pushed his spectacles up from his eyes. He appeared to me
as faces appear in a fever, all glorified with light which is not in
them,--his eyes glowing, his white hair shining like silver; but his
looks were severe. “You are not a boy, that I should reprove you; but you
ought to know better,” he said.
The... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Don’t you think, sir,” I said that evening at dinner, the subject being
reintroduced by my father himself, “that we have some duty towards them
when we draw so much from them?”
“Certainly,” he said; “I take as much trouble about their drains as I do
about my own.”
“That is always something, I suppose.”
“Something! it... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
* * * * *
Thus time passed on for several quiet days. There was nothing to make us
give any special heed to the passage of time, life being very uneventful
and its habits unvaried. My mind was very much preoccupied by my father’s
tenants. He had a great deal of property in the town which... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
When I got up from my chair at last, the battle was lost, so far as my
powers of self-control were concerned. I got up, or rather was dragged
up, from my seat, clutching at these material things round me as with a
last effort to hold my own. But that was no longer possible; I was
overcome. I stood for a moment looking... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“Father, I can’t tell you. I come not of myself. There must be something
in it, though I don’t know what it is. This is the second time I have
been brought to you here.”
“Are you going--?” He stopped himself. The exclamation had been begun
with an angry intention. He stopped, looking at me with a scared look, as
if pe... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
He gazed up at me, growing pale, and his underlip fell. I, for my part,
felt that my message was delivered. My heart sank into a stillness so
sudden that it made me faint. The light swam in my eyes; everything went
round with me. I kept upright only by my hold upon the chair; and in the
sense of utter weakness that fo... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
“What end,” he said, with again the tremble in his voice, “is to be
served by that?”
“I don’t very well know; but to look at her, you and I together, will
always do something for us, sir. As for breach, there can be no breach
when we stand there.”
He got up, trembling like an old man, which he was, but which he never
... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
This time it was morning, about noon,--a wet and rather dismal spring
day. The half-spread leaves seemed to tap at the window, with an appeal
to be taken in; the primroses, that showed golden upon the grass at the
roots of the trees, just beyond the smooth-shorn grass of the lawn, were
all drooped and sodden among the... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
Yet as it was daylight, and all was clear, I could not help noting one or
two circumstances on my way. I saw some one sitting in the hall as if
waiting,--a woman, a girl, a black-shrouded figure, with a thick veil
over her face; and asked myself who she was, and what she wanted there.
This question, which had nothing ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
My father returned to his seat. He was much agitated too, though doing
all that was possible to conceal it. My inopportune arrival was evidently
a great and unlooked-for vexation to him. He gave me the only look of
passionate displeasure I have ever had from him, as he sat down again;
but he said nothing more.
“You mu... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
He pushed me away with all his might. “You are mad,” he cried. “What
right have you to think--? Oh, you are mad--mad! I have seen it
coming on--”
The woman, the petitioner, had grown silent, watching this brief conflict
with the terror and interest with which women watch a struggle between
men. She started and fell ba... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
I had no leisure to think how he was, or whether he could hear what I
said. I had my message to deliver. “Father,” I said, laboring with my
panting breath, “it is for this that heaven has opened, and one whom I
never saw, one whom I know not, has taken possession of me. Had we been
less earthly, we should have seen he... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
* * * * *
My father recovered after a few days: he had taken cold, it was said, the
day before; and naturally, at seventy, a small matter is enough to upset
the balance even of a strong man. He got quite well; but he was willing
enough afterwards to leave the management of that ticklish ... | The Open Door, and the Portrait.: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret) | 1828 | 1897 | ['en'] | 265 | {'Manners and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10052 | |
CHINESE LITERATURE
COMPRISING
THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS,
THE SAYINGS OF MENCIUS,
THE SHI-KING,
THE TRAVELS OF F¬-HIEN, AND
THE SORROWS OF HAN
WITH CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES BY
EPIPHANIUS WILSON, A.M.
REVISED EDITION
1900
THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS
Introduction
BOOK
I. On Learning--Miscellaneous Sayings
... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 | |
BOOK III.--THE ODES OF P'EI.--
An Officer Bewails the Neglect with which He is Treated
A Wife Deplores the Absence of Her Husband
The Plaint of a Rejected Wife
Soldiers of Wei Bewail Separation from their Families
An Officer Tells of His Mean Employment
An Officer Sets Forth His Hard Lot
The Complaint of... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 | |
BOOK IV.--THE DECADE OF K'E-FOO.--
On the Completion of a Royal Palace
The Condition of King Seuen's Flocks
BOOK V.--THE DECADE OF SEAOU MIN.--
A Eunuch Complains of His Fate
An Officer Deplores the Misery of the Time
On the Alienation of a Friend
BOOK VI.--THE DECADE OF PIH SHAN.--
A Picture of Husbandry
... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 | |
Conclusion
THE SORROWS OF HAN
Introduction
Translator's Preface
Dramatis Personae
Prologue
Act First
Act Second
Act Third
Act Fourth
THE ANALECTS
OF
CONFUCIUS
[_Translated into English by William Jennings_]
PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES
_j_, as in French.
_ng_, commencing a word, like the same letters terminating on... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 | |
Yet this was the man the impress of whose teaching has formed the
national character of five hundred millions of people. A temple to
Confucius stands to this day in every town and village of China. His
precepts are committed to memory by every child from the tenderest age,
and each year at the royal university at Peki... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 | |
The second reason that made the teaching of Confucius so influential is
based on the circumstances of the time. When this thoughtful, earnest
youth awoke to the consciousness of life about him, he saw that the
abuses under which the people groaned sprang from the feudal system,
which cut up the country into separate t... | Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han | Confucius | -551 | -479 | ['en'] | 116 | {'China -- Literary collections', 'Chinese literature', 'Chinese literature -- Translations into English'} | PG10056 |
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