Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1873 — Chinese Philosophy. [ARTICLE]

Chinese Philosophy.

In ancient times there lived a man Shien. During a traveling tour he had occasion to rest for the night at a road-house. The weather was’insufferably hot, and with in the room mosquitoes swarmed by thousands. Shien fortunately had provided himself with curtains, but unfortunately the curtains were insufficient to resist the enemy. His efforts to keep them out were in vain, sounds of buzzing in unpleasant proximity still continued, and writing under the intolerable torment of their stings, his thoughts transplanted themselves to his own peaceful home. He reflected on the spacious haHs, cool couches, and the crowd of handmaids to fan and wait on their lord; and, continued he to himself, how is it that I should have suffered one moment of ennui in such a paradise? Why leave to seek pleasure and find misery abroad ? During these meditations he observed the keeper of the post, who had no curtains, pacing the room with the mosqitoes swarming around him. But what seemed to him inexplicable was that the man still appeared to be in perfect good humor. Shien, still writhing in misery, exclaimed: “My good fellow, you are one hundred times worse off than myself, but how is it that, while I am in torment of mind, you on the contrary seem happy ?” The keeper “Sir, I have just been recalling to mind the position I was once placed in; when a prisoner, bound hand and foot, I was a helpless prey to these murderous insects, unable to move a muscle, they preyed upon me with impunity, and the agony was-unbearable. It was the contrast of that horrible period with my present condition that produced that feeling of contenfedness within me. Shien was startled by the mine herein unfolded. Would, he thought, that the world in ordinary life would but daily keep in mind, and carry out such a principle of analogy. How vast then would be the result to man?— North China Herald.

castically’ says of the “new party” movement in Ohio: The new party in Ohio, which is a pre-ordained fizzle, wasted a great deal of ingenuity in pursuit of an appropriate name for itself. As it set up a claim to be a reform party, the name of Liberal Democrat was at once seen to be ridiculous, after theTlreeley performance, and' neither Liberal nor Democrat expresssed any intention of reform to the popular mind. The Cocktail Convention was a title given to the gathering, and cocktail would not be a baa name for the gang. But on the whole, the name of “Bourbon Sour” is the most expressive. If the party is to become national, John Cochrane, the executor of the Greeley movement in New York, and Sam Carry of Ohio, and that true friend of the people, and General Brinkerhoff, and the “quadrilateral journals” that manufactured the biggest political fiasco ever seen on the continent, would find the title of “Bourbon Sour” one easily understood in these hot days, and their party, by a run of luck, might become as epidemic as the cholera. The following is a Turkish recipe for a cement used to fasten diamonds and other precious stones to metalic surfaces, and said to unite surfaces of polished steel: Dissolve five or six bits (tears) of gum mastic in just enough spirits of wine to render the gum liquid. In a second vessel dissolve sufficient isinglass (previously softened in water) to make a two-ounce vial of strong glue, and add two bite of gum ammoniac, which must be rubbed until dissolved. Mix the whole with heat, and, when wanted for use, place the vial in boiling water.