The honours paid to the saints by the celebration of their feast-days
are nearly altogether practised by the Mestizo and Indian population,
the richer or upper classes of Spaniards being for the most part too
careless on such occasions, except when their turn comes to dance at
the _fetes_, or to eat the supper set out by their Mestizo neighbours
on these anniversaries; and certainly, if their piety be judged by
the alacrity usually displayed on such occasions, they will stand
very forward in the race out of purgatory. For, strange to say, the
modern Spaniards--at least those who come to the Philippines--are
as little superstitious or priest-ridden as the people of any
nation in Europe. Probably this is a symptom of their return to a
more moderate degree of faith than they used to evince prior to the
French Revolution, which has altered the tone of opinion and manners
throughout the world. And after the severity and rigid observance of
all the church high-days and holydays formerly prevalent among them,
the tide of opinion appears to have run into the opposite extreme.

I have frequently been astonished at discovering the extent to which
infidel notions are current among my Spanish acquaintances; their
prevailing opinions on the subject being, that the priests and some
of the tenets of the Catholic church are behind the age, and as such,
are to some extent unworthy of the serious attention of well-informed
people of the present day, and that those things are only suitable for
women and children. _Es cosa de mugeres_, is the usual expression,
should the subject be mentioned; and as regards the priests, the
laity very generally fancy that they must be watched carefully, as
they are certain to assume importance should an opportunity offer for
thrusting their noses into any affair they can, military or civil--it
matters not which to these ambitious men.

Among the native population, however, high church opinions, or a
notion that virtue is inherent in the walls of the church and the
priestly office, is very common, so that whatever the _padre_ says
is looked upon as indisputable by them. But I cannot say that any
rational systems of religion, or feelings not associated so much with
the _padre's_ office and dress, and with the stone and lime of the
church, as with the more pure and immaterial subjects of religious
belief, exist among them, or influence their conduct. Frequently one
sees instances of this, which place t