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 Francois--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 Ishall 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 cherry-stone 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.