Hence came the duty of worship on which Hirata (1776-1843) lays great stress. The heaven-descended Ninigi, progenitor of the imperial line, was taught by his divine forefathers that "everything in the world depends on the spirits of the _kami_ of heaven and earth, and therefore the worship of the _kami_ is a {93} matter of primary importance. The _kami_ who do harm are to be appeased, so that they may not punish those who have offended them; and all the _kami_ are to be worshipped so that they may be induced to increase their favours." Accordingly Hirata's morning prayer before the _kami-dana_, the wooden shelf fixed against the wall in a Shinto home about six feet from the floor, bearing a small model of a temple or "august spirit-house," ran thus-- "Reverently adoring the great God of the two palaces of Isé (the Sun-goddess) in the first place, the 800 myriads of celestial _kami_, the 800 myriads of ancestral _kami_, all the 1500 myriads to whom are consecrated the great and small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places in the great land of 8 islands, the 1500 myriads of _kami_ whom they cause to serve them.... I pray with awe that they will deign to correct the unwitting faults which, heard and seen by them, I have committed, and, blessing and favouring me according to the powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine example, and to perform good works in the way." Here, the spirits of the dead are blended with those of nature, without any definite attempt to assign them to different ranks or functions. Among the dead themselves there are such distinctions, which do not, however, concern us here; there are "spirits of crookedness," {94} and there are spirits of the clans and of the imperial line. But above the multitudinous groups of nameless _kami_, whether once human or attached to the physical scene, rise certain great powers which it seems very difficult to identify with departed ghosts. The earliest traditions of the divine evolution in the ancient chronicles contain no hint pointing in that direction; and the comparison of the Japanese deities of earth, fire, wind, sea, and similar great elemental forces elsewhere, is not favourable to their derivation from the hosts of the dead.