haste, and rose into the air uncommanded, for the display of his
usually not unwelcome acquirement. This he would doubtless have
executed competently had not Sen, who stood immediately behind him,
suddenly and unexpectedly raised his voice in a very vigorous and
proficient duck cry, thereby causing the one before him to endeavour
to turn around in alarm, while yet in the air--an intermingled state
of movements of both the body and the mind that caused him to abandon
his original intention in a manner which removed the gravity of the
Emperor to an even more pronounced degree than had been effected by
the diverting attitudes of the insects.

"When the gratified Emperor had beheld every portion of the tasks
which Sen had instilled into the minds of the insects, down even to
the minutest detail, he called the well-satisfied Provider before him,
and addressing him in a voice which might be designed to betray either
sternness or an amiable indulgence, said:

"'You, O Shan-se, are reported to be a person of no particular
intellect or discernment, and, for this reason, these ones who are
speaking have a desire to know how the matter will present itself in
your eyes. Which is it the more commendable and honourable for a
person to train to a condition of unfailing excellence, human beings
of confessed intelligence or insects of a low and degraded standard?'

"To this remark the discriminating Shan-se made no reply, being,
indeed, undecided in his mind whether such a course was expected of
him. On several previous occasions the somewhat introspective Emperor
had addressed himself to persons in what they judged to be the form of
a question, as one might say, 'How blue is the unapproachable air
canopy, and how delicately imagined the colour of the clouds!' yet