342 INSTINCTIVE RELIGIOUS FEELING. 



seemed to me a striking instance of the instinc- 

 tive religious feeling belonging to man ; the cere- 

 mony to the majority of the congregation, as re- 

 gards the words, being in a dead language, to 

 them an unknown tongue; and yet the effect, 

 notwithstanding, as I believe, a decidedly reli- 

 gious one, and I would hope one beneficial to 

 their minds, the grand idea of a divine sacrifice 

 being known by all to be involved in it. 



PISCATOK. Again I think you are right. I 

 am disposed to be very liberal in regard to all 

 religious ceremonies, and an optimist more or 

 less in respect of them. It has fallen to my lot 

 to witness the worship of pilgrims, prostrate on 

 the summit of Adam's Peak, one of the highest 

 mountains of Ceylon, before the supposed im- 

 pression of the foot of Buddou which has rendered 

 that mountain sacred ; to have been present in 

 the gallery of the Mosque of St. Sophia, in Con- 

 stantinople, during the worship in the bare area 

 below, when hundreds of voices were raised in 

 solemn prayer from the prostrate assembly ; and 

 also to have been present like you at a Eoman 

 Catholic mass, both in the humble chapel in the 

 wilds of Connemara or Donegal, and amidst the 

 gorgeous splendours of the Sistine, and of St. 



