"The vault of heaven was spread out like a curtain, and the square earth supported all upon it, and all things were happy. "I thy servant venture reverently to thank thee, and while I worship, present the notice to thee, calling thee Sovereign. * * * * * "All the numerous tribes of animated beings are indebted to thy favour for their beginning. "Men and things are all emparadised in thy love, O Tî. "All living things are indebted to thy goodness, but who knows from whom his blessings come to him. "It is thou alone, O Lord, who art the true parent of all things." Here the ancient view of the living sky has given place under the influences of {100} philosophy to a creative monotheism. No image is made of Shang Tî. As he stands at the head of the manifold ranks of the _Shin_, he represents the last word of animism in providing an intellectual form for religion. {101} CHAPTER IV SPIRITS AND GODS Religion in the lower culture takes many forms, but, speaking broadly, they rest upon a common interpretation of the world. Man sees around him all kinds of motion and change. He finds in everything that happens some energy or power; and the only kind of power which he knows is that which he himself exerts. As long as he is alive he can run and fight, he can throw the spear or guide the canoe; death comes to the comrade by his side, and all is still. So in wind and stream, in beast and tree, in the stones that fall upon the mountain side, in the stars that march across the nightly sky, he sees a like power; they, too, have some sort of life. Life as an abstract idea, a potency or principle, is but rarely grasped. But its manifestations early attract notice, and can be roughly explained. They are due to something inside the living body, which can pass in and out, and can finally leave it altogether. Here is an immense store of causality provided, to account for all the incidents of each day's experience. Modern language calls {102} such agents spirits, and recognises in their multitude two mingled groups, both active: the spirits of the dead on the one hand, and those of natural objects, the bubbling well, the gloomy forest, the raging storm, upon the other.