In case you were wondering…

Or, Small Signs of (Blogging) Life

“The history of China reaches back many hundred years before Christ, but a great part of it is involved in doubt, and it presents little that is instructive.”

~Samuel G. Goodrich, Peter Parley’s Geography for Beginners: With Eighteen Maps and One Hundred and Fifty Engravings, Parley’s New Geography (New York: Huntington and Savage, 1847), 153

Despite Parley’s inarguable conclusion, this blog will continue to consider both things historical and related to China, and worse, will do shortly, and regularly in the near future.

In the meantime, after the break, enjoy a bit more Parley – this time some poetry, before the gouty old man had finished thinking the matter of China through fully…

“…
And I will but repeat in rhyme,
That if, at any future time,
You wish to take a pleasant trip,
Around the world – get in a ship,
From Boston forth to China bound –
A place, you know, that’s half way round
O’er the Atlantic she will steer;
Around Good Hope she’ll take you clear;
Across the Indian Ocean’s tide,
She’ll bear you safe to Canton’s side.
And there – awhile your troubles o’er –
With silks and teas you’ll store;
Then you can take another track,
O’er the Pacific to come back.
Stormy Cape Horn with caution clearing,
O’er the Atlantic once more steering,
You’ll reach the home that gave you birth
Having been round this great big earth!”

~ibid., 29-30

Back soon!