[112] The provisions read: “If a man aid a male or female slave of the palace, or a male or female slave of a freeman to escape from the city gate, he shall be put to death.” “If a man harbor in his home a male or female slave who has fled from the palace or from a freeman, and do not bring him [the slave] forth at the call of the commandant, the owner of that house shall be put to death” (_Code_, secs. 15, 16). [113] Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilization_, p. 744. [114] Taylor, _Ancient Ideals_ (1896), vol. i, p. 41. [115] _Records of the Past_, New Series, vol. ii, pp. 143 ff. [116] “The white man has no doubt committed great barbarities upon the savage, but he does not like to speak of them, and when necessity compels a reference he has always something to say of manifest destiny, the advance of civilization and the duty of shouldering the white man’s burden in which he pays tribute to a higher ethical conscience” (Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), vol. i, p. 27). King Leopold may have been responsible for barbarities committed against the natives of the Kongo as atrocious as those of the Assyrians, but he paid tribute to the modern conscience by refraining from portraying them in imperishable marble at The Hague. [117] Cf. Martin, _The Lore of Cathay_ (1901), p. 226. [118] Though the people are shut out from participation in the state worship, they have set up for themselves a multitude of local shrines where they worship the spirits of almost every earthly thing, such as mountains, rivers, trees, and rocks. “Men debarred from communion with the Great Spirit resorted more eagerly to inferior spirits, to spirits of the fathers, and to spirits generally.... The accredited worship of ancestors, with that of the departed great added to it, was not enough to satisfy the cravings of men’s minds.” (Legge, _The Religions of China_ (1881), p. 176). [119] _The Lore of Cathay_ (1901), p. 274. [120] Williams, _The Middle Kingdom_ (1883), vol. ii, p. 239. [121] We do not mention Buddhism in this connection for the reason that it is not possible to trace any decisive influence, save in the promotion of toleration, that this system has exercised upon Chinese morality. Buddhism enjoins celibacy, and this, like Christian asceticism, is in radical opposition to the genius of Confucianism. For this reason, in conjunction with others,--among these its early degeneracy,--Buddhism has remained practically inert as an ethical force in Chinese society. What little influence it has exerted has been confined almost wholly to the monasteries. [122] “The dread of spirits is the nightmare of the Chinaman’s life.”--LEGGE, _The Religions of China_ (1881), p. 197. [123] _The Religion of the Chinese_ (1910), p. 34.