This second story is devoted
exclusively to religious purposes. The room to which you are now
introduced is about thirty feet square, and as you look around you
perceive the hangings on the walls and the rich decorations of the
ceiling. Here are placards on the walls, which, your guide will tell
you, if you are not conversant with the Chinese tongue, bear on them
sentences from the writings of Confucius, Mencius, and others, with
exhortations to do nothing against integrity or virtue, to venerate
ancestors and to be careful not to injure one's reputation in the eyes
of Americans;--all of which is most excellent advice, and worthy of
the attention of men everywhere. You then cast your eyes on the gilded
spears, and standards and battle-axes standing in the corners of the
Temple, and as you look up you almost covet the great Chinese lanterns
suspended from the ceiling. Your eyes are finally directed to the
altar, near which, and on it, are flowers artificial and natural. At
the rear in a kind of a niche in the Joss or god. The figure of this
deity was like a noble Chinaman, well-dressed, with a moustache, and
having in his eyes a far-away expression.
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