―1―

The progress of Knowledge and Improvement under the Alloan dominion has produced
many Alterations in the Nipponese System of religion. They were formerly
divided into 3 Sects.
Sintoism

Polytheism. The worship of deified Kings and heroes ‸^{or of celestial & Spiritual likeness} : Who are either the beings of
an Age which fancy hath divided into two parts. The first producing hordes
of divinities strictly so called; the Second a Series of god like men, who merely
nearly resembles ‸^{beings of} their own nature, who originated in a third or last age.

To the first age, is assigned an Unlimited period. Numerous legends, proverbs
and Songs contain ‸^stitute the frail and Marvellous ^{Memorials of} the wild and Marvellous Events of
the Second. Of these the general outline is, that Isanagi [gap] disobeyed the law
of his imaculate nature by maintaining sensual Intercourse with his
wife. Thence sprung, ‸^{Amatinu, the father of all} the present race, and by lineal ^Primogenial Succession, ^of their
present clerisy of Pontifex Maximus. The place of his Nativity is deemed
sacred, ^{and is} yearly visited by pilgrims; temples rise to his honour in all the
provinces & cities of Nippon. All sects concur in their veneration for
him. With ‸^Anasedrius the fifth in descent from this demigod, terminates the heroic
or Silver Age, and commences the existence of the present degenerate species
of whom Anasedrius is the parent. The lineal descendents of Anasedrius,
are deemed sacred, they constitute in some sort the priestly tribe, and
the head of the family, by Male primogeniture, possesses much the
same Attributes with the tibetan lama.

Their lean and barren but apparently authentic Anals begin at
the reign of Anasedriu which is computed to have fallen in the 660 years Ante C.

The history of the Second period is full of Marvellous Adventures. Numerous
reliques are preserved & venerated. The Names of Citis and places bear frequent
Allusion to them. These, though suitable in wildness & Absurdity, to the
grossness of Nipponeze Conceptions, have easily admitted of moral and poeti
cal embellishment from the Alloan Genius

―2―

It is not necessary to abolish it by violence. It affords a commodious instrument of
instruction. The diffusion of Knowledge will sufficiently weaken its Authority, and
bestow on it the form of a dream of poetry.

The Sintoist religion requires — 1. Temples. They occupy the most pleasant
spots, within or near the precincts of Cities. T. & Villages. Small, low, Simple, wooden
structures, quadrangular. A Stone basin of Water in the Court. Shut up. Without
Priests or Attendants: A bell, wide & flat. Hanging over the door. Struck, with a
knotted rope by the worshipper. The temple furniture is — Mats covering the
floor. Strips hung-up of white paper. A looking-glass in the Middle.
Mostly destitute of Images, Paintings, Inscriptions; but sometimes containing
Images & reliques, locked up in Chests, to be born, on solemn days, in procession.

2.1. belief that virtue insures temporal happiness, & a Residence in a future
Elysium; that vice is punished by sch distasters here, and a purgatory wander
ing hereafter, without the precincts of that blissful region

2 purity of heart. 3 External purity 4. Observance of festival &
holy-days. 5. Pilgrimage to Jago. 6. Mortification (by some).

2. purity of hearts & Morals. No positive precepts: general observance of
natural and Civil laws.

External purity requires abstinence from blood — from eating flesh. dead
bodies