Asnusst or worship of the souls of the dead is now the religion of the greater part of the human race. The ancient Romans worshipped the manes of their forefathers' and so did the ancient Aztecs. North American Indians, negroes of Guinen and Polynesia and Zulus are all animists. But the most highly civilized race of animists are the Chinese, and they appear to have been animists from their first appearance in history, This is simply another way of saying that they all worship their ancestors, Herbert Spencer thought that he had discovered the origin of all religion in ancestral worship; he said that people dreamed of their ancestors and so imagined thet they still existed as spirits. If we paid respect to them while' living, why nob after death, more especially as their change of state probably enhanced their power of good or ill. Now while we do not endorse Herbert Spencer's theory, for it does not explain all the facts, yet_he teuly enough describes the probable thoughts of a Chinese. That. the Chinese render to their ancestors what is essentially of the nature of worship to spiritual beings no scholar doubts. fo compare it to our Western custom of placing flowers on the grave is ridiculous. The Chinese themselves would be the first to indignantly deny that they meant no more than we Weatern people. No, we in the
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