[47] The following is from the Mikado’s Rescript issued on the conclusion of peace:—“The result is due in a large measure to the benign spirits of our ancestors, as well as to the devotion and duty of our civil and military officials and the self-denying patriotism of all our people.... We are happy to invoke the blessing of the benign spirits of our ancestors.” N.B.—The word “God” is conspicuous by its absence; “ancestors’ spirits” take its place.
[48] International Journal of Ethics, April, 1904, p. 338, art. “Professor William James’s Interpretation of Religious Experience,” by James H. Leuba.
[49] An instructive treatise on this subject will be found in Vol. II., ch. x., of Weismann on Heredity. (Clarendon Press Series.)
[50] Do you know a hymn tune by Lord Crofton, set to the words, “Bless’d are the pure in heart”? When I first heard that tune played I shook with emotion. I did not know at that time the words that the tune had been set to; so it could only have been the music that affected me. At one time I confess that I myself used to mistake this hysterical element in my nature for religious fervour.
[51] The Ven. Archdeacon J. M. Wilson, D.D., late headmaster of Clifton College—in the Journal of Education, 1881.
[52] In Three Essays on Religion, p. 80 of the Cheap Reprint issued for the Rationalist Press Association.