yourself in time." He did not deny the
existence of unseen powers; on the contrary, he said: "The _kwei shin_
(the most general term for supernatural beings) enter into all things,
and there is nothing without them;" but he added, "We look for them and
do not see them; we listen, but do not hear them." In speaking of deity,
he dropped the personal syllable (_te_) and only spoke of heaven, in the
indefinite sense. Such was this extraordinary man. The utilitarian
theory, what we call the common sense view of life, was never better
taught. But his doctrine is not a religion. His followers erect temples,
and from filial respect pay the usual honors to their ancestors, as
Confucius himself did. But they ignore religious observances, strictly
so-called.

These examples, therefore, do not at all conflict with the general
statement that no religion can exist without prayer. On the contrary, it
is the native expression of the religious sentiment, that to which we
must look for its most hidden meaning. The thoughtful Novalis, whose
meditations are so rich in reflections on the religious nature of man,
well said: "Prayer is to religion what thought is to philosophy. To pray
is to make religion. The religious sense prays with like necessity that
the reason thinks."

Whatever the form of the prayer, it has direct or indirect relation to
the accomplishment of a wish. David prays to the Lord as the one who
"satisfies the desire of every living thing," who "will fulfil the
desire of them that fear him," and it is with the like faith that the
heart of every votary is stirred when he approaches in prayer the
divinity he adores.

Widely various are the things wished for. Their character is the test of
religions. In primitive faiths and in uncultivated minds, prayers are
confined to the nearest material advantages; they are directed to the
attainment of food, of victory in combat, of safety in danger, of
personal prosperity. They may all be summed up in a line of one which
occurs in the Rig Veda: "O Lord Varuna! Grant that we may prosper in
_getting and keeping_!"

Beyond this point of "getting and keeping," few primitive prayers take
us. Those of the American Indians, as I have elsewhere shown, remained
in this stage among the savage tribes, and rose above it only in the
civilized states of Mexico and Peru. Prayers for health, for plenteous
harvests, for safe voyages and the like are of this nature, though from
their familiarity to u