KKV. ARTHUR ELWIN ON ANCESTRAL WOliSHIP. 81 



the province of Canton, and the occasion was one of great joy to 

 me ; for it is well known that it is extremely hard for a Chinaman 

 to part with his ancestral tablets. As far as I know, I was the only 

 missionary at that time, in our part of China, in possession of any 

 tablets at all. Those two tablets have names inside, written plainly 

 in black ink. I could also give parallel cases of what could be 

 -called Christian exorcism, very similar to those set before them by 

 Mr. Elwin ; hnt I must confine myself to the subject of the evening, 

 which appears to me to be of great interest. In the main I entirely 

 .agree with the general view that Mr. Elwin has set before us ; but I 

 am not quite sure that we ought to call ancestral worship "an 

 idolatrous " custom. Tablets are not idols, but simply records of 

 the names of the deceased, and I hardly think it can be said that 

 these deceased spirits are deified. Rather is it like the case of the 

 Roman Catholic devotion to saints ; but, any way, it appears to me 

 that the subject has very great interest from a point of view which 

 has not been mentioned. 



We all know that the origin of religion was attrilnited by the late 

 Herbert Spencer to spirit worship. His formula is very simple. 

 Dreams gave rise to the notion of a separable soul. Dreams of 

 ■dead enemies gave the notion that they were still existing. Dreams 

 -of a dead chief who had been in his lifetime of great power, ferocity 

 and cunning, and had made himself feared, produced the idea that 

 he was a powerful spirit in the other world, and this powerful spirit 

 was the first god : from this origin Herl)ert Spencer teaches that 

 all religion has resulted in the whole world. It seems to me, if we 

 were to study Chinese history, it ought to throw some light on this 

 subject. The worship of deceased spirits is a very important part 

 of Chinese religion, and we should be able, I think, if the theory 

 is true, to find something in Chinese books to support Herbert 

 Spencer's theory. 



Now I think we ought to distinguish between three periods : the 

 ancient history of China, what I may call the middle history of 

 Chitia, and that of the present day. In fact, a very large portion 

 of what has been stated this evening about spirit worship in 

 China is unknown in the ancient books. If we go back to the 

 old books of history and poetry, and study the subject, there I 

 think we shall see plainly that worship was paid to the spirits 

 of deceased kings, princes, ministers, and persons of importance ; 



