sudden breaks.

In its simplest condition, such as may be met with among the
Australian savages, theology is a mere belief in the existence,
powers, and disposition (usually malignant) of ghostlike
entities who may be propitiated or scared away; but no cult can
properly be said to exist. And, in this stage, theology is
wholly independent of ethics. The moral code, such as is implied
by public opinion, derives no sanction from the theological
dogmas, and the influence of the spirits is supposed to be
exerted out of mere caprice or malice.

As a next stage, the fundamental fear of ghosts and the
consequent desire to propitiate them acquire an organised ritual
in simple forms of ancestor-worship, such as the Rev. Mr. Turner
describes among the people of Tanna (l.c. p. 88); and
this line of development may be followed out until it attains
its acme in the State-theology of China and the Kami-
theology<26> of Japan. Each of these is essentially ancestor-
worship, the ancestors being reckoned back through family
groups, of higher and higher order, sometimes with strict
reference to the principle of agnation, as in old Rome; and, as
in the latter, it is intimately bound up with the whole
organisation of the State. There are no idols; inscribed tablets
in China, and strips of paper lodged in a peculiar portable
shrine in Japan, represent the souls of the deceased, or the
special seats which they occupy when sacrifices are offered by
their descendants. In Japan it is interesting to observe that a
national Kami--Ten-zio-dai-zin--is worshipped as a sort of
Jahveh by the nation in general, and (as Lippert has observed)