his ears’ and ‘ring a bell’ for all the good that can do him. Other people will hear the bell if he doesn’t. Nothing on earth will change the colour of that cloud of his except a conscientious repentance and a thorough reformation of character. Besides there is every danger of the truth becoming bruited abroad, and then he is a lost man. Not only would he be severely punished by the king of the country, but he would further be shunned on all sides as a degraded and dishonourable man.”
“Great God!” cried the trader Lin, “how unjust are thy ways.”
“Why say you so?” asked T‘ang of his uncle, “and to what may you be particularly alluding?”
“I say so,” replied Lin, “inasmuch as I see these clouds confined to this nation. How useful it would be in our country to have some such infallible means of distinguishing the good from the bad. For if every wicked man carried about, so to speak, his own shop-sign with him wherever he went, surely this would act as a powerful deterrent from crime.”
“My dear friend,” said the aged To, “though the wicked in our part of the world carry about with them no tell-tale cloud, there is nevertheless a blackness in their looks by which you may know the colour of their hearts.”
“That may be so,” answered Lin, “but I for one am unable to perceive whether the blackness is there or not.”
“You may not detect it,” retorted To, “but God does, and deals out rewards and punishments accordingly.”
“Sir,” said Lin, “I will take your word for it;”―and there the discussion ended.
