To what extent do the Chinese believe in ghosts and goblins, damons and gical transactions? It is not easy to answer this question, because, perhaps, it is not easy to say how far some form of superstition dominates at sometime or other every human being in the world. The Chinese reveal when alarmed or judiciously questioned an extraordinary amount' of credulity, The world in which they move is peopled with myriads of mysterious beings, and one half their actions are influenced by motives quite beyond the comprebonefon of the European and utterly alien from his habits or modes of thought. It is impossible to put oneself for a moment into the state of mind of anyone of the blue-gowned crowd we pass every day. They do not see the same sky or the same earth that we do. What we regard as inanimate, they consider to be full of life. Their world is supported on the back of " vast animal, and, before an earthquake, the pairs of this monster appear shooting out of the ground. Tlese are the most ordinary instances, which we cite to prove that it is wholly out of the power of a ineleenth century Englishman to understand @ nineteenth century Chinae mau, Itisbarderthan foran Buglishman to put himself back into the condition of an Englishman of the time of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.