Besides, it is only in hours of leisure that I devote myself to the cultivation of flowers.” Ch‘ên Hao-tzŭ then runs through the four seasons, showing how each has its especial charm, contributing to the sum of those pure pleasures which are the best antidote against the ills of old age. He then proceeds to deal with times and seasons, showing what to do under each month, precisely as our own garden-books do. After that come short chapters on all the chief trees, shrubs, and plants of China, with hints how to treat them under diverse circumstances, the whole concluding with a separate section devoted to birds, animals, fishes, and insects. Among these are to be found the crane, peacock, parrot, thrush, kite, quail, mainah, swallow, deer, hare, monkey, dog, cat, squirrel, goldfish--first mentioned by Su Shih, “_Upon the bridge the livelong day I stand and watch the goldfish play_”-- bee, butterfly, glowworm, &c. Altogether there is much to be learnt from this Chinese White of Selborne, and the reader lays down the book feeling that the writer is not far astray when he says, “If a home has not a garden and an old tree, I see not whence the everyday joys of life are to come.” * * * * * [Sidenote: CHAO I] CHAO I (1727-1814) is said to have known several tens of characters when only three years old,--the age at which John Stuart Mill believed that he began Greek. It was not, however, until 1761 that he took his final degree, appearing second on the list. He was really first, but the Emperor put Wang Chieh over his head, in order to encourage men from Shensi, to which province the latter belonged. That Wang Chieh is remembered at all must be set down to the above episode, and not to the two volumes of essays which he left behind him. Chao I wrote a history of the wars of the present dynasty, a collection of notes on the current topics of his day, historical critiques, and other works. He was also a poet, contributing a large volume of verse, from which the following sample of his art is taken:-- “_Man is indeed of heavenly birth, Though seeming earthy of the earth; The sky is but a denser pall Of the thin air that covers all. Just as this air, so is that sky; Why call this low, and call that high?_ “_The dewdrop sparkles in the cup-- Note how the eager flowers spring up; Confine and crib them in a room, They fade and find an early doom. So ’tis that at our very feet The earth and the empyrean meet._ “_The babe at birth points heavenward too, Enveloped by the eternal blue; As fishes in the water bide, So heaven surrounds on every side; Yet men sin on, because they say Great God in heaven is far away._” The “stop short” was a great favourite with him. His level may be gauged by the following specimen, written as he was setting out to a distant post in the north:--