This of course is carrying the theory of the mutual responsibilities of father and son, ruler and ruled, a great deal too far: but occurrences of this kind will become less and less frequent with the gradual advance of scientific and general knowledge; and it is surely far better that the changes should occur automatically than by forcible interference with customs and superstitions which in their fall might involve the indiscriminate destruction of good and bad. We may now perceive, perhaps, how it was that Confucius, who was evidently almost an agnostic with regard to gods and spiritual beings,[330] was strenuously opposed to the abandonment of the rites and ceremonies that presupposed the existence of such beings. He insisted upon the importance of keeping up the cult of ancestors not so much for the sake of the dead but because it fostered among living men feelings of love, respect, reverence, and duty towards family and State. The souls of the dead might or might not be unconscious of what was done for them, but it was in the interests of social harmony and political stability that the traditional religious and commemorative ceremonies should be jealously preserved and handed down to posterity and that during the performance of such ceremonies the presence of the ancestral spirits should at least be tacitly assumed. There is one alleged objection to ancestor-worship which only a few years ago might have been regarded as most serious; and indeed it has been urged again and again by missionaries, travellers, ethical writers and sociologists. It was supposed that the cult of ancestors kept the race that practised it in the grip of a remorseless conservatism; that the ancestor-worshipper always turned his back on progress and reform on the plea that what was good enough for his grandfather was good enough for him; that ancestor-worship was the secret of Oriental stagnation, and that no Eastern race could be expected to advance in civilisation and culture until it had learned to work for the good of its posterity rather than for the barren honour of its ancestry.