[1294] De Groot, Religion of the Chinese, chaps. i and iii; pp. 62 ff., 112 f., 129 f.
[1295] With this conception we may compare the similar principles in the Vedic and Mazdean systems.
[1296] The all-controlling order, as is remarked above, is that of the universe, which furnishes the norm for human life; but in the universe the grandest object is heaven.
[1297] Legge, in Sacred Books of the East, xxxix, xl; De Groot, Religious System of China, and his smaller works, Religion of the Chinese and Development of Religion in China.
[1298] W. E. Griffis, Religions of Japan; E. Buckley, in Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, 2d ed.; Aston, Shinto; Knox, Development of Religion in Japan; Longford, The Story of Old Japan, chap. ii.
[1299] Whether the worship of ancestors, now so important an element of the national life, is native or borrowed is uncertain.
[1300] W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, new ed., p. 13 ff.
[1301] Compare Baethgen, Beiträge sur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, p. 262 f.
[1302] Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria; id., Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria; Jeremias, in Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte; Zimmern, article "Babylonians and Assyrians" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics; Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, i, part ii, 2d book. In our survey of Babylonian deities the question of Sumerian influence may be left out of the account.
[1303] Compare Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 481; id., Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 23, 45, 121.