684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be unmarried. And really they have made a very fair provision for 

 enabling themselves to loose the knot. ISTot only do they admit such 

 grounds of divorce as would satisfy Sir Cresswell Cresswell, but they 

 add to them inveterate infirmity, disrespect to the husband's parents, 

 thieving, and, most comprehensive class of all, ill-temper and talka- 

 tiveness. However, if the husband has acquired property since his 

 marriage, if the wife has no parental home to which she may return, 

 or if she has mourned for her husband's parents, divorce can not take 

 place. It is one of the many exemplifications of the Chinese maxim 

 that the laws should be severe, but tempered with mercy in their ad- 

 ministration. 



There is, however, another dissolution of marriage over which law 

 has no power that which is effected by the hand of death. The 

 widow is not forbidden to remarry, but by so doing she loses many 

 privileges, and her conduct is considered somewhat light and irregu- 

 lar. Nature, however, will occasionally speak louder than fashion, 

 and it may be worth while to repeat the tale told by Chwangtsze, the 

 great Chinese philosopher. 



A Chinaman died soon after his marriage with a young and lovely 

 woman. As he was dying, the wife was loud in her protestations of 

 grief, and her determination not to marry again. The husband was 

 not unreasonable ; he only asked that if she did take another spouse 

 she would wait till the earth upon his grave was dry. He died and 

 was buried ; and many a young and handsome bachelor of the prov- 

 ince of Shantung was present at his funeral. She listened to no 

 suitor, for woman's heart is tender, and she could not so soon forget 

 the lost one. Daily she stole to his grave. She wept, but no tear 

 fell upon the soil, she took good care of that. At last, after a few 

 days, Chwangtsze happened to pass, and saw her fanning, not herself, 

 but the damp earth. He asked the reason. She told him of her hus- 

 band's last request, and begged him to assist her. She offered him a 

 fan to assist her, and there they sat to fan away the moisture : the 

 grave was so long a-drying ! 



Poor Chwang ! He was not much more lucky himself. He did 

 not take the widow, but neither did he take warning. The geese 

 were carried for him, and were very typical of himself. He had 

 nothing to do for it at last but to quit political life, in which he had 

 gained some distinction, and turn philosopher. But we will have "no 

 more scandal about Queen Elizabeth," lest rosy English cheeks should 

 take the part of China's golden lilies, as we have known widows at 

 home almost in as great a hurry as those of the province of Shantung. 



But even to the poor Chinaman death must come at last, even 

 though there is no paper in Canton, so far as we know, to furnish a 

 notice of his life and death, and to publish an abstract of his will, as 

 is the case in more civilized countries. To him it comes armed with 

 few terrors, so long as he leaves behind him male offspring to make 



