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CHINESE STORY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: None are so wise as they who make pretense


None are so wise as they who make pretense
To know what fate conceals from mortal sense.
This moral from a tale of Ho-hang-ho
Might have been drawn a thousand years ago,
When men were left to their unaided senses,
Long ere the days of spectacles and lenses.


Two young, short-sighted fellows, Chang and Ching,
Over their chopsticks idly chattering,
Fell to disputing which could see the best.
At last they agreed to put it to the test.
Said Chang, "A marble tablet, so I hear,
Is placed upon the Ba-hee temple near,
With an inscription on it. Let us go
And read it (since you boast your optics so),
Standing together at a certain place
In front, where we the letters just may trace;
Then he who quickest reads the inscription there
The palm for keenest eyes henceforth shall bear.
"Agreed, ' ' said Ching, "but let us try it soon
Suppose we say to-morrow afternoon."
Nay, not so soon, said Chang, "I'm bound to go
To-morrow a day's ride from Ho-hang-ho,
And sha'n't be ready till the following day; -
At ten a. m. on Thursday, let us say."


So 'twas arranged; but Ching was wide awake
Time by the forelock he resolved to take
And to the temple went at once and read
Upon the tablet: "To the illustrious dead,
The chief of mandarins, the great Goh-Bang."
Scarce had he gone, when stealthily came Chang,
Who read the ·çame; but, peering closer, he
Spied in a corner what Ching failed to see -
The words, ' ' This tablet is erected here
By those to whom the great Goh-Bang was dear."
So on the appointed day -both innocent
As babes, of course -these honest fellows went,
And took their distant station; and Ching said,
"I can read plainly, ' To the illustrious dead,
The chief of mandarins, the great Goh-Bang.'
And is this all that you can spell ? ' ' said Chang.
I see what you have read, but furthermore,
In smaller letters, toward the temple door,
Quite plain, ' This tablet is erected here
By those to whom the great Goh-Bang was dear."






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