There is doubtless some truth in what they relate of still more ancient times. Yet, in spite of all their learning and philosophy, the Chinese have not been able to attain unto the true knowledge of God, but to the present day they either worship images and large numbers of false gods, as well as their own deceased ancestors, or content themselves with a worldly form of philosophy, and set religion entirely aside. In a book published in A. D. 1640 no less than 800 divinities are mentioned as entitled to worship.

The traditional account of the origin of the universe and of mankind runs thus:—

In the beginning, when visible nature had not yet come into existence, there everywhere existed the widely diffused, undivided ether. By means of some secret, internal process, this ether which existed without division assumed the form of duality, as both matter and energy: Yin and Yang, the negative or feminine and the positive or masculine potency of matter respectively, earth and

heaven appeared. On the interaction of these depended the ultimate differentiation of the primordial ether, and, earlier than all other individualities, there was produced the first man in the world, by name Pw'an Ku. He is often represented as wielding an adze and making the world. It is not known how long he lived. When he died, his breath became the wind and the clouds, his voice the thunder, his left eye the sun, his right eye the