details are
not to be approved; the victims need not be fat and large (cf. Horace,
Od. III, 23; _Immunis aram_, etc.); a profusion of the other offerings
is not to be admired." There must, however, be no parsimony. A high
official, well able to afford better things, was justly blamed for
having sacrificed to the manes of his father a sucking-pig which did not
fill the dish.

Religious Dances.--"The various dances displayed the gravity of the
performers, but did not awaken the emotion of delight. The ancestral
temple produced the impression of majesty, but did not dispose one to
rest on it. Its vessels might be employed, but could not be conveniently
used for any other purpose. The idea which leads to intercourse with
spiritual Beings is not interchangeable with that which finds its
realisation in rest and pleasure."

Priestcraft.--From the ceremonial of ancestor worship the thin end of
the wedge of priestcraft was rigorously excluded. "For the words of
prayer and blessing and those of benediction to be kept hidden away by
the officers of prayer of the ancestral temple, and by the sorcerers and
recorders, is a violation of the rules of propriety. This may be called
keeping in a state of darkness."

Confucius sums up the value of sacrifices in the following words. "By
their great sacrificial ceremonies the ancients served God; by their
ceremonies in the ancestral temple they worshipped their forefathers. He
who should understand the great sacrificial ceremonies, and the meaning
of the ceremonies in the ancestral temple, would find it as easy to
govern the empire as to look upon the palm of his hand."

Filial Piety.--Intimately connected with ancestral worship is the
practice of filial piety; it is in fact on filial piety that ancestral
worship is dependent for its existence. In early ages, sons sacrificed
to the manes of their parents and ancestors generally, in order to
afford some mysterious pleasure to the disembodied spirits. There was
then no idea of propitiation, of benefits to ensue. In later times, the
character of the sacrifice underwent a change, until a sentiment of _do
ut des_ became the real mainspring of the ceremony. Meanwhile, Confucius
had complained that the filial piety of his day only meant the support
of parents. "But," argued the Sage, "we support our dogs and our horses;
without reverence, what is there to distinguish one from the other?" He
affirmed that children who would be accounted filial