178 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. X. 
much under the influence of the drug to care for passing 
events, and fast merging to the wished-for consumma- 
tion. The last scene in this tragic play is generally a 
room in the rear of the building, a species of dead- 
house, where lie stretched those who have passed into 
the state of bliss the opium-smoker madly seeks — 
an emblem of the long sleep to which he is blindly 
hurrying." 
