Confucianism has enjoyed St ate patronage and protection for about 2100 years. There have been severe struggles among the various adher ents of 'the three religions' for supremacy: but the Chinese mind. indifferent to things abstract. is in its way tolerant, and there is outward peace. Millions of natives. scarcely knowing `the three religions' as separate, apeept them in a meehanieal amity. ea eh meeting a different want in human nature. Confucianism supplies the need of a moral code, Taoism ministers to the superstitious mind. and Buddhism, with its nietaphysies and vague aspirations. appeals to the lapilic element in man. There is also a State ritual, with the Temple of !leaven in Peking, at which sacrifices of the first class, to heaven and earth. are made, the Emperor acting for his people: but he does not minister as a priest, nor is there any such thing as a priest hood in China. The second class of offerings is to the sun, moon, gods of the land, spirits, and sages, and the third class to deceased statesmen and scholars. On a smaller scale, these ritual ceremonies are observed by the magistrates; for. above all, the Chinaman in every rank is a pantheist. Practically the Chinese are religious
ly inclined, having deep veneration for the idea of a soul and of immortality. Hence their great respect for the dead, love of funeral ceremonies, readiness to spend money over graves, desire to propitiate the ghosts of ancestors, yearning for sons. the strong family sentiment of unity. and the strict subordination of the younger to the elder. They are tolerant and non-militant. Except that there is no day of rest, and that the idea of 'praise' never entered the Chinaman's mind, a good man in China is, in natural religion. very much what a good man is in Christendom. in faith, doctrine. and dogma, it is very different, for the average Chinaman is uninterested in metaphysics. In the propagation of religion by foreigners, true and simple Christianity exer cises a lasting effect for good on the Chinese mind. :Nlost of the so-called troubles come from the clashing of militant alien doc trine with the village customs and social habits so dear to the rustic mind. Toward the ques tions of liquor, slavery, and conenbinage, and in social customs generally, the entire mental atti tudes of European and native differ.