Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/370

347 priests are very poor. Though they say that the church is rich and does not give to them, their words are not to be believed. Since the Chin and Han dynasties the teachings of Duke Chou and Confucius have somewhat declined and the Buddhist religion has advanced.

Now the Buddhist faith arose in India, but modern India chiefly professes Mohammedanism and has rejected Buddhism. The Catholic faith arose in western lands, but the modern nations of the west have set up another religion, the Protestant, and have forcibly opposed the Catholic faith. Hence we see that false doctrines sometimes perish and sometimes rise, but the teachings of Chou and Confucius remain everlastingly unchanged, causing the Chinese to establish their government, regulate their customs, and make their ceremonies and instruction most illustrious. Though a hundred plans be used to cause them to abandon these teachings, they are not in the least to be credited.

Thus did Tsêng reveal the positive faith that held his allegiance, and range himself squarely on the side of Confucius and those from whom Confucius drew his ideas. This carried with it an agnostic attitude towards the beliefs of the common man in spirits and demons — except those of the household, the departed ancestors. But there was no such agnosticism regarding Heaven and its decrees. Moreover at times we have noticed that he departs from the agnostic attitude regarding some of the popular divinities — as when he vowed a play to the goddess of mercy. He was not blind to the fact that there were mysteries which his philosophy could not fathom except on the basis of a providence that determined human fate. Thus, in recording the death of an acquaintance who should to all appearance have enjoyed a long and happy life, he observes that life and death and the reward of good men are inexplicable matters. When his