rs, but there are tablets
with names written upon them. The family bow down before the tablets, and
burn incense and gold paper! What a foolish service! What good can
incense and paper do to the dead? And what good can the dead do to their
children? How is it that such clever people as the Chinese are so
foolish?

RELIGION.--You have heard already that the Chinese worship the dead.

Who taught them this worship?

It was a man named Confucius, who lived a long while ago. This Confucius
was a very wise man. From his childhood he was very fond of sitting alone
thinking, instead of playing with other children. When he was fourteen he
began to read some old books that had been written not long after the
time of Noah. In these books he found very many wise sentences, such as
Noah may have taught his children. The Chinese had left off reading these
wise books, and were growing more and more foolish.[6] Confucius, when he
was grown up, tried to persuade his countrymen to attend to the old
books. There were a few men who became his scholars, and who followed him
about from place to place. They might be seen sitting under a tree,
listening to the words of Confucius.

Confucius was a very tall man with a long black beard and a very high
forehead.

Had he known the true God, how much good he might have done to the
Chinese; but as it was he only tried to make them happy in this world. He
himself confessed that he knew nothing about the other world. He gave
very good advice about respect due to parents; but he gave very bad
advice about worship due to them after they were dead.

Was he a good man? Not truly good; for he did not love God; neither did
he act right: for he was very unkind to his wife, and quite cast her off.
Yet he used to talk of going to other countries to teach the people. It
would have been a happy thing for him, if he had gone as far as Babylon;
for a truly wise man lived there, even Daniel the prophet. From him he
might have learned about the promised Saviour, and life everlasting. But
Confucius never left China.

He was ill-treated by many of the rich and great, and he was so poor that
rice was generally his only food. When he was dying he felt very unhappy,
as well he might, when he knew not where he was going. He said to his
followers just before his death, "The kings refuse to follow my advice;
and since I am of no use on earth, it is best that I should leave it." As
soon as he was dead, people began t