The Bonzes who talk in this way are, usually, what are derisively termed "hunting and fishing" Bonzes, not remarkable for strictness of conduct, though quite as likely to stick to the Temples, like our Bonzes; they are not likely to pull down the roof which shelters them. The Superstition is less revered than formerly, and its wilder parts are less obtrusive. Its pretensions are not moderated in terms, but the practice is more moderate. Sects do not put each other to death, at present, though so much of the old bitterness remains that no one can say what horrors might follow upon unexpected changes. Gradually wise men endeavour to drop out of sight the Jewish and Priestly creations, and, inculcating morality, take the _Christ-God_ as symbol of Charity, and his moral precepts as the basis of a moral Philosophy; or (to be less offensive to the Superstition) _Christian Philosophy_. In this way they seize hold of what is true in the Great Idolatry, and endeavour to ignore the grosser parts altogether. They hope to bring about a rational worship without violence, by a gradual disuse and forgetfulness of the irrational, and are willing to yield something to ignorance, if they can by that means, in the end, enlighten it. They allow to Christ an exalted character, large in the divine faculty, and divine as man is divine in possessing that faculty--to say, _the moral_. In this, much as we see in our exalted _Confutze_, who lived and taught long before the period ascribed to Christ, and from whom the Western tribes, doubtless, received their moral notions. The religion of Wise men is the same at all times and everywhere. Wherever some intellectual culture exists, men will be found who understand and practise the rules of morality; and wherever this is general, there is the higher civilisation. This higher civilisation, resting upon a general morality among a people, has for its base a rational recognition of the Sovereign Lord and man's dependency and accountability to Him; _Father of men_; and Himself the source of this morality. He, _in this faculty, reveals Himself_, and shows to man _his_ sole claim to a divine relationship. This higher civilisation does not mistake intellectual achievement as its title to enlightenment. The sharp and active brain is quite consistent with the base and low; and may be indifferent to superstitions and degrading idolatries. But the moral faculty, active and large, at once refines and exalts the intellect; then men are truly _wise_, and degrading superstitions die.