them, will it not be a work meritorious and virtuous?"

"This proposal," remarked the Buddhist, "is quite in harmony with my own
views. Come along then with me to the palace of the Monitory Vision
Fairy, and let us deliver up this good-for-nothing object, and have done
with it! And when the company of pleasure-bound spirits of wrath descend
into human existence, you and I can then enter the world. Half of them
have already fallen into the dusty universe, but the whole number of
them have not, as yet, come together."

"Such being the case," the Taoist acquiesced, "I am ready to follow you,
whenever you please to go."

But to return to Chen Shih-yin. Having heard every one of these words
distinctly, he could not refrain from forthwith stepping forward and
paying homage. "My spiritual lords," he said, as he smiled, "accept my
obeisance." The Buddhist and Taoist priests lost no time in responding
to the compliment, and they exchanged the usual salutations. "My
spiritual lords," Shih-yin continued; "I have just heard the
conversation that passed between you, on causes and effects, a
conversation the like of which few mortals have forsooth listened to;
but your younger brother is sluggish of intellect, and cannot lucidly
fathom the import! Yet could this dulness and simplicity be graciously
dispelled, your younger brother may, by listening minutely, with
undefiled ear and careful attention, to a certain degree be aroused to a
sense of understanding; and what is more, possibly find the means of
escaping the anguish of sinking down into Hades."

The two spirits smiled, "The conversation," they added, "refers to the
primordial scheme and cannot be divulged before the proper season; but,