ing for others, as we would for ourselves. The five cardinal virtues, according to his school, are benevolence, righteousness, politeness, wisdom, and truth; and the duties of the human relations, those which should subsist between parents and children, elder and younger brethren, princes and ministers, husbands and wives, friends and companions. Of all these, filial piety stands first and foremost; reverence to parents is required, not only in youth, when children are dependent on, and necessarily subject to, their natural protectors; but even to the latest period, parents are to be treated with honour, and after death to be raised to the rank of gods. Without filial piety, they say, it is useless to expect fidelity to one's prince, affection to one's brethren, kindness to one's domestics, or sincerity among friends. Filial piety is the foundation of benevolence, rectitude, propriety, wisdom, and truth. This feeling, if conceived in the heart, and embodied in the life, will lead to the performance of every duty, the subjugation of every passion, and the entire renovation of the whole man. It is not to be confined to time and place, but is to be maintained whether the objects of our respect be present or absent, alive or dead; and thousands of years after their departure, ancestors are still to be exalted in the liveliest apprehensions, and undiminished affections of their descendants.
It is strange, however, that while Confucius recommends such an excessive veneration for parents, he should have overlooked the reverence due to the Father of our spirits; and while he traced up the series from parents to ancestors, requiring the highest degree of honour to be paid to our first progenitors, that he should not have considered Him from whom all beings
