'Sociology,' p. 153.
1
At the festival of Nifu Miōjin in Kiī, when the procession bearing offerings arrives before the shrine, the village chief calls out in a loud voice, "According to our annual custom, let us all laugh." To which a hearty response is given. This is because this God does not go to Idzumo for an annual visit like the others.
3
Compare with this the following description of the huacas of the ancient Peruvians. "All those things which from their beauty and excellence are superior to other things of a like kind; things that are ugly and monstrous or that cause horror and fright; things out of the usual course of nature."
4
In the spirit of Wordsworth's
"Listen, the mighty being is awakeAnd doth with his eternal motion makeA noise like thunder everlastingly."5
M. Goblet d'Alviella says: "I maintain that neither of these two forms of worship necessarily presupposes the other; but that man having been led by different roads to personify the souls of the dead on the one hand and natural objects and phenomena on the other, subsequently attributed to both alike the character of mysterious superhuman beings. Let us add that this must have taken place everywhere, for there is not a people on earth in which we do not come upon these forms of belief side by side and intermingled." Dr. Pfleiderer's view is substantially identical.
6
Max Müller speaks of "that ancient stratum of thought which postulated an agent in the sky, the sun, &c." This is really a secondary conception.
7
It was not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome. Zeus, Hercules, and other deities became divided up in this way.
8
"Mr. Tyler has justly observed that the true lesson of the new science of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitive times of the faculty which we most associate with mental fertility, the imagination… Among these multitudes (the millions of men who fill what we vaguely call the East) Literature, Religion, and Art-or what correspond to them-move always within a distinctly drawn circle of unchanging notions… This condition of thought is rather the infancy of the human mind prolonged than a different maturity from that most familiar to us." – Maine, 'Early History of Institutions,' pp. 225-6. This characteristic of the mental development of the races of the Far East is discussed in 'A Comparative Study of the Japanese and Korean Languages,' by W. G. Aston, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, August, 1879, and more fully by Mr. Percival Lowell, in his 'Soul of the Far East,' 1888. See also Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's' Kojiki,' Introd., lxvi.
9
Homer implicitly denies the spirituality of his Gods when he says that the Hercules which was summoned up by Ulysses was only his eidolon, or phantom, the real man being in Olympus among the happy Gods.
10
See an instructive article on 'Shekinah' in Dr. Hastings's 'Dictionary of the Bible'.
11
"And mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man." – 'Macbeth,' Act III. scene i.
12
The Shekinah was also associated with a divine radiance, or glory.
13
Mi mi (august body) in the names of others involves a more material conception of deity.
14
Corresponding to the mo acha, uncle of peace, and ski acha, rough uncle, of the Ainus.
18
For deities of classes consult Dr. Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' ii. 242.
19
"Laotze finit par n'être plus que le principe vital universel existant avant le ciel et la terre et qui s'est plu à chaque époque a se montrer sous les traits d'un personnage quelconque souvent des plus obscurs." – 'Religion de la Chine,' De Harlez.
20
See a paper on the Hi no maru (sun-circle) in the T. A. S. J., Nov. 8th, 1893.
21
Such as touching for scrofula or the assurance of fine weather.
22
The statements of Kaempfer, in his 'History of Japan,' regarding the sacred character of the Mikado's person cannot be depended on. His account of Shinto generally is grossly erroneous, or rather imaginary.
23
'Japan,' edited by Capt. Brinkley.
26
'Evolution of Religion,' p. 239.
27
Fuku means good fortune.
29
In Teutonic mythology the will-of-the-wisps are souls which have not attained heavenly peace.
30
See also Mr. Frazer's 'Golden Bough,' ii. 297.
31
The Stoics held that the world was not only animated and immortal, but likewise happy and round, because Plato says that that is the most perfect form.
33
For full details of the construction of the Japanese dolmen, the reader
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