On a Chinese youth entering a school as pupil for the first time in any year, he is expected to bring with him two small candles, a few sticks of incense, and a small quantity of mock-money, which are to be lighted and consumed before a slip of paper, having some title of Confucius written upon it, the pupil making the usual prostration before it after these things have been lighted and while they are being consumed. This is called “entering school,” or “worshiping the sage.” One morning, some six years ago, a lad, dressed in his best clothes, marched into a free-school under the charge of a missionary, carrying, beside his books, three sticks of incense, two small candles, and a few sheets of mock-money, designed, in accordance with established usage, as an offering to the Chinese sage. It seemed that the teacher had neglected to inform his parents that in the mission school the sage was not worshiped. The lad was quietly told that the articles he had brought would not be used, inasmuch as those who studied the books of Jesus did not burn incense in honor of Confucius. Thus from earliest childhood the youth of China are taught to reverence their great countryman, Confucius. THE WORSHIP OF SHANG-TE, AT PEKING. Notwithstanding the silence of Confucius on the subject of Shang-te, his worship has been maintained, not, perhaps, in its original purity, but with marks of reverence which place its object on the highest pinnacle of the Chinese Pantheon. At the present day, the imperial worship of Shang-te, on the round hillock to the south of the city of Peking, is surrounded with all the solemnity of which such an occasion is capable. The altar is a beautiful marble structure, ascended by twenty-seven steps: a balustrade surrounds each terrace. On the upper of these three terraces are five tables or altars, on which the offerings to Shang-te are laid. This is the central point of attraction in this whole inclosure of a square mile, which contains thousands of beautiful trees and many subordinate buildings. On another terrace stands a magnificent triple-roofed circular structure, ninety-nine feet in height, which constitutes the most conspicuous object of the whole. On the day before the annual sacrifices at the Winter Solstice, the Emperor proceeds to the Hall of Fasting, on the west side of the south altar. Here he spends the night in watching and meditation, after first inspecting the offerings. The tablets to the Supreme Ruler of Heaven (_i.e._, Shang-te,) and to the Emperor’s ancestors are preserved in the chapel at the back of each altar. There are no images. Both these chapels are circular, and covered with blue glazed tiles. The south altar, the most important of all Chinese religious structures, has the following dimensions. It consists of a triple circular terrace, 210 feet wide at the base, 150 in the middle, and 90 at the top. The heights of the three terraces, upper, middle and lower, are 5½ feet,