Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/227

 the particle yeh, with influences as subtle as those of the Greek ye, occurs no fewer than twenty times.

The next piece is entitled "An Autumn Dirge," and refers to the sudden collapse of summer, so common a phenomenon in the East :

"One night I had just sat down to my books, when suddenly I heard a sound far away towards the south- west. Listening intently, I wondered what it could be. On it came, at first like the sighing of a gentle zephyr . . . gradually deepening into the plash of waves upon a surf-beat shore . . . the roaring of huge breakers in the startled night, amid howling storm-gusts of wind and rain. It burst upon the hanging bell, and set every one of its pendants tinkling into tune. It seemed like the muffled march of soldiers, hurriedly advancing, bit in mouth, to the attack, when no shouted orders rend the air, but only the tramp of men and horses meet the ear.

" 'Boy,' said I, ' what noise is that ? Go forth and see.' ' Sir,' replied the boy on his return, ' the moon and stars are brightly shining : the Silver River spans the sky. No sound of man is heard without : 'tis but the whisper- ing of the trees.'

"'Alas !' I cried, 'autumn is upon us. And is it thus, O boy, that autumn comes ? autumn, the cruel and the cold ; autumn, the season of rack and mist ; autumn, the season of cloudless skies ; autumn, the season of piercing blasts ; autumn, the season of desolation and blight ! Chill is the sound that heralds its approach, and then it leaps upon us with a shout. All the rich luxuriance of green is changed, all the proud foliage of the forest swept down to earth, withered beneath the icy breath of the destroyer. For autumn is nature's chief execu- tioner, and its symbol is darkness. It has the temper of

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