THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 



87 



In connection with the several obscure but remarkable in- 

 stances of correspondences between the American shores of the 

 Pacific and the remoter islands of Melanesia, it is interesting to 

 note that the only other well-defined discovery of this mesh was 

 made in British America upon the Pacific shore. Prof. George 

 Davidson, of San Francisco, a most accurate student of the life 

 of the native races with whom he had to deal, in prosecuting the 

 survey of that coast, found nets of this peculiar mesh manufact- 

 ured by the Tchin-cha-au Indians of British Columbia in the 

 vicinity of Port Simpson, and described it in the proceedings of 

 the California Academy of Sciences, of which body he was for 

 many years the president. The writer has been informed that a 

 similar mesh has been noticed in the textile remains of the la- 

 custrine period of Switzerland, but he has been unable to identify 

 the reference in any of the figures contained in the usual authori- 

 ties upon that prehistoric society. 



THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 



By WAEKEN G. BENTON. 



TN former papers on the Chinese religions I referred to Confu- 

 -L danism as a religion, following the generally accepted view 

 of the matter. But in this paper I shall treat it as in no legitimate 

 sense a religion, but simply and purely a system of moral or 

 ethical philosophy. 



^ Religion has to do primarily with the existence of a deity and 

 with the question of man's immortality, and the relationship exist- 

 ing between the two. Morality may grow out of man's effort to 

 sustain an acceptable relationship to the Deity and the future life • 

 but if so, it is incidental to and not a part of religion. The ao-es 

 most noted for religious enthusiasm, and in which human fife 

 and liberty were most freely sacrificed for orthodoxy in religious 

 opinions and forms, were notoriously immoral. And at the pres- 

 ent day, in many countries, the most religious are not the most 

 moral^ communities. At Panama, a few years ago, I went to a 

 cockpit on a Sunday afternoon, and among the spectators were 

 several gentlemen in clerical cloth ; and after the various battles 

 were ended I observed that these clerically clad gentlernen were 

 exchanging coin on the result. During the same afternoon, while 

 "taking in" the sights of that town of cathedrals and churches, I 

 saw more than one woman, around whose neck was suspended an 

 image of the Virgin Mary, but whose manner of life indicated 

 that a less appropriate symbol could not well be imagined. It is 

 equally significant that rarely does a criminal ascend the gallows 



