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
in the ordering and placing those plumes some dark mysteries are
represented, which pass down among their priests in a secret tradition
concerning them; and that they are as hieroglyphics, putting them in mind
of the blessing that they have received from God, and of their duties,
both to Him and to their neighbours. As soon as the priest appears in
those ornaments, they all fall prostrate on the ground, with so much
reverence and so deep a silence, that such as look on cannot but be
struck with it, as if it were the effect of the appearance of a deity.
After they have been for some time in this posture, they all stand up,
upon a sign given by the priest, and sing hymns to the honour of God,
some musical instruments playing all the while. These are quite of
another form than those used among us; but, as many of them are much
sweeter than ours, so others are made use of by us. Yet in one thing
they very much exceed us: all their music, both vocal and instrumental,
is adapted to imitate and express the passions, and is so happily suited
to every occasion, that, whether the subject of the hymn be cheerful, or
formed to soothe or trouble the mind, or to express grief or remorse, the
music takes the impression of whatever is