CHAPTER XXXIX

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.

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