And now for _Lippius’s_ clock! said I, with the air of a man, who had
got thro’ all his difficulties----nothing can prevent us seeing that,
and the _Chinese_ history, &c., except the time, said _François_----for
’tis almost eleven --Then we must speed the faster, said I, striding it
away to the cathedral.
I cannot say, in my heart, that it gave me any concern in being told by
one of the minor canons, as I was entering the west door, --That
_Lippius’s_ great clock was all out of joints, and had not gone for some
years ----It will give me the more time, thought I, to peruse the
_Chinese_ history; and besides I shall be able to give the world a
better account of the clock in its decay, than I could have done in its
flourishing condition----
----And so away I posted to the college of the Jesuits.
Now it is with the project of getting a peep at the history of _China_
in _Chinese_ characters--as with many others I could mention, which
strike the fancy only at a distance; for as I came nearer and nearer to
the point--my blood cool’d--the freak gradually went off, till at length
I would not have given a cherrystone to have it gratified ------The truth
was, my time was short, and my heart was at the Tomb of the Lovers ----I
wish to God, said I, as I got the rapper in my hand, that the key of the
library may be but lost; it fell out as well------
_For all the JESUITS had got the cholic_--and to that degree, as never
was known in the memory of the oldest practitioner.