example, not only to tell you the exact time at which any post or
beam of this house will yield to decay, but even to tell you the
direction of the breaking, and all its results. I can best
explain what I mean by relating a story.


"The story is about the famous Chinese fortune-teller whom we
call in Japan Shoko Setsu, and it is written in the book Baikwa-
Shin-Eki, which is a book of divination. While still a very young
man, Shoko Setsu obtained a high position by reason of his
learning and virtue; but he resigned it and went into solitude
that he might give his whole time to study. For years thereafter
he lived alone in a hut among the mountains; studying without a
fire in winter, and without a fan in summer; writing his thoughts
upon the wall of his room--for lack of paper;--and using only a
tile for his pillow.

"One day, in the period of greatest summer heat, he found himself
overcome by drowsiness; and he lay down to rest, with his tile
under his head. Scarcely had he fallen asleep when a rat ran
across his face and woke him with a start. Feeling angry, he
seized his tile and flung it at the rat; but the rat escaped
unhurt, and the tile was broken. Shoko Setsu looked sorrowfully
at the fragments of his pillow, and reproached himself for his
hastiness. Then suddenly he perceived, upon the freshly exposed
clay of the broken tile, some Chinese characters--between the
upper and lower surfaces. Thinking this very strange, he picked
up the pieces, and carefully examined them. He found that along
the line of fracture seventeen characters had been written within
the clay before the tile had been baked; and the characters read