246 AN INTELLECTUAL MONSTROSITY. 



nour to the renowned taciturnity of the Bonzes. The cloth was 

 removed in due time, and the general gravity was slightly relieved 

 by a simultaneous smile on the appearance of the wine and dessert. 

 Still silence continued ; we sat in mute expectation, and at least 

 one quarter of an hour had passed, and yet the stranger remained 

 quiet ! he had the rudeness not to give us a lecture " on the man- 

 ners, customs, and language of the Chinese people !" We looked at 

 each other and winked significantly to our host, who appeared some- 

 what disappointed. We knit our brows : some of us eat of various 

 things, to vent the accumulated feeling of irritation ; whilst others 

 drank their wine quicker, and all looked angry at the traveller for 

 his seeming indifference. In this way we were all under great ex- 

 citement, and every one of us skirmished a little, partly to vent our 

 spleen, and partly to induce the stranger to correct our apprehen- 

 sions ; but all hints were thrown away, as lie continued to sip his 

 weak wine and water, apparently perfectly unconscious of the per- 

 turbation he occasioned us. What annoyed us the more was the 

 fact that he occasionally smiled most provokingly (no doubt at some 

 of his own reminiscences) ; but we could not opine whether he did 

 so at us, or at his own mental associations. There was not an indi- 

 vidual present who did not consider his ccmduct as an open defiance 

 of an established custom, an infringement of a conventional rule es- 

 tablished by long usage. What was more, we had actually been 

 invited to meet the celebrated Chinese traveller, who would, in all 

 probability, amuse us with his numerous adventures. But in spite 

 of all this he had disappointed us, and appeared only a commonplace 

 kind of personage ; and on our leaving we unanimously passed a 

 sentence upon him " that he was a great bore !" 



I subsequently discovered that this opinion was a very unjust one, 

 and I now regard such conduct as was manifested by the party as a 

 violation of true politeness and moral good breeding ; for we consi- 

 der it as the acme of insolence to expect or ask a stranger to lec- 

 ture to a large party because he has been invited to a dinner ! We 

 were ourselves the real bores, by not paying attention and respect 

 to a worthy and talented man for his own sake, instead of that un- 

 mollified selfishness \.hich prompts an individual, with something 

 like a feverish anxiety, to treat such a talented stranger as a mental 

 monstrosity, who ought to be exhibited to the gaze of the curious. 

 It was, however, a lesson of some importance to myself; for a few 

 days after the above occurrence I had the privilege of dining with 

 him at the house of the late talented and learned William Taylor, 

 and it was indeed an interesting day — an epoch in my life ! for we 



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