610
Defense of an Essay, &c.
Nov.
And first that the calling the manes of ancestors in common with all the other objects worshiped, skin, is no argument to prove that the word when so used does not mean god, we think will appear from the following considerations:-1st. That the distinctive name of the manes of ancestors is kwei, not shin. 2d. That shin is the distinctive name of the objects of worship who reside in heaven (the Olympian deities). 3d That, when not restricted to this, its appropriate meaning, it is then used as the general name of all the objects worshiped in the state religion. This appears from the explanation of the uses of this word quoted in Vol. XVII., p. 33:-"If we speak of them (i. e. the objects worshiped in the national rites) separately, the t'ien shin, celestial gods, are alone called shin; but if we speak of them collectively, then the kwei, human manes, and the k'í, terrestrial gods, are both call- ed shin." That is, Shin, when thus used, is the general name of all the objects worshiped in the national rites. 4th. That the manes of a deceased ancestor, when regarded as an object of religious worship, should be ranked in the same class with the Chinese Olympian deities, so far as this is done, by their all being called by the same appellative name, shin, should not surprise us, when we remember the hero-gods of Greece and the "Diï lares et penates" of the Romans. That heroism was the idol of ancient Greece accounts to us for the fact that Hercules, after death, was ranked among the Asol. If we remem- ber that the whole ethical system of the Chinese turns, not on the duty of obedience to Tien F, to Ti H, or to any other god, but on filial piety; with this fact on our minds, we shall have as little cause to wonder at the Chinese deification of a deceased ancestor, as at the Greek deification of a hero; find as little cause of surprize in the fact that Háu-tsih (the ancestor) is classed with Shángti, among the Shin sacrificed to on the occasion of the great drought referred to on p. 46 of Vol. XVII., as that the Greeks called Zɛus, the father of gods and men, and Hercules (the hero), each a ☺ɛoç. 5th. Elohim being a name coinmon alike to the true and to false gods, one of the most important uses of this word in the Sacred Scriptures is to forbid polytheism. It is indeed by its appellative character, and the consequent use that can be made of this word to forbid polytheism, that it is chiefly distin- guished from the word "Jehovah ;" and this is a point of the utmost importance for us to keep in mind, while discussing the rendering of this word into the language of a polytheistic people. Now it is an unquestionable fact that the false worship to which the Chinese are most addicted, and to which they are much the most attached, is that of their deceased ancestors. Should we not then rejoice, rather than