Pride of ancestry is so prominent a characteristic of nations, families, and individuals alike, that there is some justification for calling it a peculiarity of the human race. Men glory in the possession of records that tell of mighty[138] deeds of valour wrought by their progenitors. Pride of kinship with heroes of past times breeds a sense of responsibility as an accompaniment to the inheritance of a noble name, urging the necessity of passing it on to posterity if not enriched, at least untarnished in its purity. The idea of the immortality of the individual in the race, characterising the Hebrews as recorded in the Books of the Old Testament, is one outcome of this innate pride of birth, which here becomes, as in many other instances, incorporated as part foundation of a religious creed. Ancestor-worship is another such example. Only, be it noted, whereas this idea of the continuity of being finds its chief expression in recognising and revering the link between present and past generations of men, that of the Hebrew is built upon a conception of survival in their children. Both offer a remarkable testimony to the innate desires of men to contribute towards the continuity of humanity in the establishment[139] of the individual's relationship to the Whole of Life. The Hebrew prays that his seed may multiply and cover the face of the earth, seeing therein the security of his own immortality. But the prayer of a devout Chinaman embodies rather his recognition of honour due to his dead ancestors than his desire to secure a prolific progeny. He is the child of the past, rather than, as the Hebrew, a child of expectancy. With regard to the ideas of spiritual correspondence embodied in the theories of the transmigration and reincarnation of spirits, it would appear that such are an outcome of the same search after truth that found expression nineteen hundred years ago in the Christian doctrine of the spiritual immortality of all men, by reason of their derivative union with God as the Spirit of Life, and which are to-day confirmed and reincorporated in the scientific theories of the evolutionary descent of man and the unity of Nature. [140]