"...This book (in two volumes) reveals to the careful reader many phases of Chinese life and manners which he will admire and commend. But if he should tire with the senseless and useless opinions cherished, and the strange and superstitious customs practiced among all classes of society, let him reflect that for over twenty centuries China has been in bondage to the writings of Confucius and Mencius, and, for nearly the same period, to the religions of Tauism and Buddhism. This fact satisfactorily accounts for many of the absurd, superstitious, and stereotyped opinions and customs prevalent in that empire. Its people need, above all other things, the peculiar influences which the Bible - the great enlightener and enfranchiser - invariably exerts over those who make it their lamp and their law..."