“Your insight is clear and unbiased,” said the gracious Sovereign.  “But however entrancing it is to wander unchecked through a garden of bright images, are we not enticing your mind from another subject of almost equal importance?”

“There is yet another detail, it is true,” admitted the sage, “but regarding its comparative importance a thoroughly loyal subject may be permitted to amend the remark of a certain wise Emperor of a former dynasty:  ’Any person in the City can discover a score of gold mines if necessary, but One only could possibly have written “Concerning Spring."’”

“The arts may indeed be regarded as lost,” acquiesced the magnanimous Head, “with the exception of a solitary meteor here and there.  Yet in the trivial matter of mere earthly enrichment—­”

“Truly,” agreed the other.  “There is, then, a whisper in the province that the floor of the Imperial treasury is almost visible.”

“The rumour, as usual, exaggerates the facts grossly,” replied the Greatest.  “The floor of the Imperial treasury is quite visible.”

“Yet on the first day of the next moon the not inconsiderable revenue contributed by those who present themselves for the examination will flow in.”

“And by an effete and unworthy custom almost immediately flow out again to reward the efforts of the successful,” replied the Wearer of the Yellow in an accent of refined bitterness.  “On other occasions it is possible to assist the overworked treasurer with a large and glutinous hand, but from time immemorial the claims of the competitors have been inviolable.”

“Yet if by a heaven-sent chance none, or very few, reached the necessary standard of excellence—?”

“Such a chance, whether proceeding from the Upper Air or the Other Parts would be equally welcome to a very hard-lined Ruler,” replied the one who thus described himself.

“Then listen, O K’ong-hi, of the imperishable dynasty of Chung,” said the stranger.  “Thus was it laid upon me in the form of a spontaneous dream.  For seven centuries the Book of the Observances has been the unvarying Classic of the examinations because during that period it has never been surpassed.  Yet as the Empire has admittedly existed from all time, and as it would be impious not to agree that the immortal System is equally antique, it is reasonable to suppose that the Book of the Observances displaced an earlier and inferior work, and is destined in the cycle of time to be itself laid aside for a still greater.”

“The inference is self-evident,” acknowledged the Emperor uneasily, “but the logical development is one which this diffident Monarch hesitates to commit to spoken words.”