Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/234

 his soul more moist. To Scobee he ranted about eternal solicitude, bodily frailties, inconsequential fundamentals. He knew that present existence was wrong. He could see the defects in everything but he had nothing better to offer. Hung Long Tom translated his opinions to Scobee for Kya-Jih could speak only Chinese. But they were hardly worth translating, dry, whining dogma that could be summed up simply and concisely. Everything beautiful and pleasurable was wrong. Right was concerned with suffering, renunciation of all physical delights, countless irritations.

And Hung Long Tom said, "If he is right, then the ultimate end of all things is sorrow. Man need not be concerned with future existences because the hereafter would be on a lower plane than the present. The basis of all true religions must be beauty, all others are false. In sunsets, flowers, poetry much of divinity is hidden."

At this time throughout the city tales were told of a wandering medico whose cures were attracting universal attention. They were