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"They have, indeed, very few of them, lest greater numbers sharing in the |
same honour might make the dignity of that order, which they esteem so |
highly, to sink in its reputation; they also think it difficult to find |
out many of such an exalted pitch of goodness as to be equal to that |
dignity, which demands the exercise of more than ordinary virtues. Nor |
are the priests in greater veneration among them than they are among |
their neighbouring nations, as you may imagine by that which I think |
gives occasion for it. |
"When the Utopians engage in battle, the priests who accompany them to |
the war, apparelled in their sacred vestments, kneel down during the |
action (in a place not far from the field), and, lifting up their hands |
to heaven, pray, first for peace, and then for victory to their own side, |
and particularly that it may be gained without the effusion of much blood |
on either side; and when the victory turns to their side, they run in |
among their own men to restrain their fury; and if any of their enemies |
see them or call to them, they are preserved by that means; and such as |
can come so near them as to touch their garments have not only their |
lives, but their fortunes secured to them; it is upon this account that |
all the nations round about consider them so much, and treat them with |
such reverence, that they have been often no less able to preserve their |
own people from the fury of their enemies than to save their enemies from |
their rage; for it has sometimes fallen out, that when their armies have |
been in disorder and forced to fly, so that their enemies were running |
upon the slaughter and spoil, the priests by interposing have separated |
them from one another, and stopped the effusion of more blood; so that, |
by their mediation, a peace has been concluded on very reasonable terms; |
nor is there any nation about them so fierce, cruel, or barbarous, as not |
to look upon their persons as sacred and inviolable. |
"The first and the last day of the month, and of the year, is a festival; |
they measure their months by the course of the moon, and their years by |
the course of the sun: the first days are called in their language the |
Cynemernes, and the last the Trapemernes, which answers in our language, |
to the festival that begins or ends the season. |
"They have magnificent temples, that are not only nobly built, but |
extremely spacious, which is the more necessary as they have so few of |
them; they are a little dark within, which proceeds not from any error in |
the architecture, but is done with design; for their priests think that |
too much light dissipates the thoughts, and that a more moderate degree |
of it both recollects the mind and raises devotion. Though there are |
many different forms of religion among them, yet all these, how various |
soever, agree in the main point, which is the worshipping the Divine |
Essence; and, therefore, there is nothing to be seen or heard in their |
temples in which the several persuasions among them may not agree; for |
every sect performs those rites that are peculiar to it in their private |
houses, nor is there anything in the public worship that contradicts the |
particular ways of those different sects. There are no images for God in |
their temples, so that every one may represent Him to his thoughts |
according to the way of his religion; nor do they call this one God by |
any other name but that of Mithras, which is the common name by which |
they all express the Divine Essence, whatsoever otherwise they think it |
to be; nor are there any prayers among them but such as every one of them |
may use without prejudice to his own opinion. |
"They meet in their temples on the evening of the festival that concludes |
a season, and not having yet broke their fast, they thank God for their |
good success during that year or month which is then at an end; and the |
next day, being that which begins the new season, they meet early in |
their temples, to pray for the happy progress of all their affairs during |
that period upon which they then enter. In the festival which concludes |
the period, before they go to the temple, both wives and children fall on |
their knees before their husbands or parents and confess everything in |
which they have either erred or failed in their duty, and beg pardon for |
it. Thus all little discontents in families are removed, that they may |
offer up their devotions with a pure and serene mind; for they hold it a |
great impiety to enter upon them with disturbed thoughts, or with a |
consciousness of their bearing hatred or anger in their hearts to any |
person whatsoever; and think that they should become liable to severe |
punishments if they presumed to offer sacrifices without cleansing their |
hearts, and reconciling all their differences. In the temples the two |
sexes are separated, the men go to the right hand, and the women to the |
left; and the males and females all place themselves before the head and |
master or mistress of the family to which they belong, so that those who |
have the government of them at home may see their deportment in public. |
And they intermingle them so, that the younger and the older may be set |
by one another; for if the younger sort were all set together, they |
would, perhaps, trifle away that time too much in which they ought to |
beget in themselves that religious dread of the Supreme Being which is |
the greatest and almost the only incitement to virtue. |
"They offer up no living creature in sacrifice, nor do they think it |
suitable to the Divine Being, from whose bounty it is that these |
creatures have derived their lives, to take pleasure in their deaths, or |
the offering up their blood. They burn incense and other sweet odours, |
and have a great number of wax lights during their worship, not out of |
any imagination that such oblations can add anything to the divine nature |
(which even prayers cannot do), but as it is a harmless and pure way of |
worshipping God; so they think those sweet savours and lights, together |
with some other ceremonies, by a secret and unaccountable virtue, elevate |
men's souls, and inflame them with greater energy and cheerfulness during |
the divine worship. |
"All the people appear in the temples in white garments; but the priest's |
vestments are parti-coloured, and both the work and colours are |
wonderful. They are made of no rich materials, for they are neither |
embroidered nor set with precious stones; but are composed of the plumes |
of several birds, laid together with so much art, and so neatly, that the |
true value of them is far beyond the costliest materials. They say, that |
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