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_0 THE ANALECTS : INTRODUCTION.
servative decorum and love of culture, will not be without
refining influence on his own character, and which moreover
will enable him to clothe whatever noble thoughts
he may have in garb better suited to the climate.
As to his doctrines though they chiefly lelate to the
relationships between man and man, they are far from
destitute of an element higher than mere humanity. The
powers of the unseen world have their acknowledged part
in controlling the spirit of man in his duty to his fellows.
God, the Supreme Ruler, is recognised as a Being to be
revered and worshipped. He it is who has produced the
order of the Universe, and decreed the various classes of
mankind. Associated with Him are a multitude of spirits,
who have their distinctive spheres in the direction of affairs
celestial and terrestrial, and by these the good are guided
and protected. The spirits of a man's forefathers are also
and especially to be worshipped, as if they were present, a
worship upon which the well-being of society is dependent.
There is room in such a system for unlimited multiplication
of gods and spirits, with the natural consequence that the
national, and therefore in a sense Conf,aeian deities of
China, altogether apart from the Taoist and Buddhist
cults, have become legion.
Sacrifices, propitiatory rather than expiatory, are ordained
for approaching the object of worship, for with
empty hands it were unseemly to come. Virile sentiments
are given utterance to in connection with such offerings,
see XX. I. et alia, and it is recognised that the spirit in
which the worshipper presents them is of higher value
than the gifts themselves. That Jesus Christ the Universal