material and realistic, so devoid of all conception of things
abstract, that his ideas rarely, if ever, soar beyond the contemplation
of the "outward and visible signs" of christian belief. The symbols
of faith and the observance of religious rites are to him religion
itself. He also confounds morality with religion. Natives go to church
because it is the custom. Often if a native cannot put on a clean
shirt, he abstains from going to Mass. The petty-governor of a town
was compelled to go to High Mass accompanied by his "ministry." In
some towns the _Barangay Chiefs_ were fined or beaten if they were
absent from church on Sundays and certain Feast Days. [83]

As to the women, little or no pressure was necessary to oblige them
to attend Mass; many of them pass half their existence between private
devotion and the confessional.

The parish priest of Lipa (Batangas) related to a friend of mine that
having on one occasion distributed all his stock of pictures of the
Saints to those who had come to see him on parochial business, he
had to content the last suppliant with an empty raisin-box, without
noticing that on the lid there was a coloured print of Garibaldi. Later
on Garibaldi's portrait was seen in a hut in one of the suburbs with
candles around it, being adored as a Saint.

A curious case of native religious philosophy was reported in a
Manila newspaper. [84] A milkman, accused by one of his customers of
having adulterated the milk, of course denied it at first, and then,
yielding to more potent argument than words, he confessed that he had
diluted the milk with _holy water from the church fonts_, for at the
same time that he committed the sin he was penitent.

Undoubtedly Roman Catholicism appears to be the form of Christianity
most successful in proselytizing uncivilized races, which are impressed
more through their eyes than their understanding. If the grandeur of
the ritual, the magnificence of the processions, the lustre of the
church vessels and the images themselves have never been understood
by the masses in the strictly symbolic sense in which they appeal
to us, at least they have had their influence in drawing millions to
civilization and to a unique uniformity of precept, the practice of
which it is beyond all human power to control.

For Music the native has an inherent passion. Musicians are to be found
in every village, and even among the very poorest classes. Before
the Revolution there was sc