Reverence for the dead has always been more a characteristic of Oriental peoples than of Western nations. ne, even in the West, not so long ago, great stress was laid on the importance of preparing for the next world, but opinion has changed slowly and now there is perhaps a tendency in the West to live to¥ much in the present. With the Oriental iit ig different. In his mind the future life is kept very vividly before him by an innate belief that the spirits of the departed are all around him and can work him weal or woe at pleasure. In addition, with the Chinese and Japanese, there is the ingrained respect for the dead arising out of the Confwe evan dioctriina. These facts, perhaps, explain in part a Buddhist memorial rite recently held which to the Western mind is curiously foreign. The ceremony, which took place at the West Hoganji Temple, Dairen, was held in honour of the memory of over 40 people whose remains had been made subjects of autoptic operations from last November to August at the Railway Hospital. We are told incidentally that the bereaved relations of the dead were recipients of a confection which, no doubt, afforded Somd consolation for the liberties
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.