In Mennie's Pageant of Peking the spirit of the capital is caught in picture. Here are the beautiful palaces, the humble markets; in pictures of to-day we meet the priest, the courtesan, the common people, and can carry away with us the atmosphere of dust-clouded caravans nearing their journey's end and street life unchanged since Marco Polo's visit more than six hundred years ago.
And in Peking is the focus of this great Empire's religious worship—the Temple of Heaven. It is a fane that has no counterpart to-day. In it is spiritualised the essence of Chinese Buddhism, for here the Ruler of the Middle Kingdom made personal intercession for his people once every year.
Contemplating it, one's imagination harks back into the ages and recalls Judah's ancient rites—the Temple at Jerusalem, the high priest entering the Holy of Holies and his solitary intercession for the sins of the Chosen People.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.