OCR Text |
Show Oriental Paragons of Virtue. I-- RUM thut special virtue of the Orient, filial piety, has sprung the extraordinary loyalty of the Oriental to country and to ruler; aud among the Chinese and Japanese, especially, them are no greater favorites than the "Four and Twenty Paragous of Filial ricty." whose virtues are set forth in the Chinese Classics. These arc far too numerous to refer to except in the briefest manner. Thu' following fol-lowing will serve to illuatrate the East, cm Ideas with reference to the cpcclal virtue in n.uestion. One fable has it that one of these paragons had a cruel stepmother, who was extremely fond of fiah. Instead of resentiug her cruel treatment of him, the paragon pltvccd himself upon the frozen surface of a lake The warmth of his body melted u hole in the ice, at which two carp cmue up to breathe. These carp the paragon caught and took home !; i ' ' . -;. .V ' ,.: to his stepmother, as befitted a dutiful child. Another of these paragons was. a lad with a most sensitive skin who insisted on sleeping without any covering at nighl so that the mosquitoes should fasten on him and not attack his parents, whe were thus able to sleep undisturbed. One paragon, a girl, clung to the jaw !of a tiger that was about to devour hei father. The parent was thus ennblec to escape, while the paragon was, oi course, devoured. Roraijhi, another! of the paragons, de spite the fact that he wnjj seventy year: old, continued to dress in baby'a clothe i and to crawl about tho floor of his house with the object, of course, of deluding hi: vvarontfl, who wc lca,1J over ninety years old, iuto tho notion Hint they couk not, after nil, be so very old, scciug thn they had such an exceedingly Infautil. :!son. '';y' " - |