heir feelings in the grossest
and worst light. For example, the first act of a courtesan in the
morning is generally to repair to the church, and after, as a matter
of course, having said her prayers, to pass the time in any species
of debauchery or immorality her lovers may wish. I state this fact,
to give some idea of the extent of superstition and of priestly
influence over their conduct, which shows how powerfully mere habits
and custom may influence our manners without improving our minds,
when we are brought up in a formal routine of habits of respect for we
don't know well what; for they have no further acquaintance with the
principles of religious belief than the habit of crossing themselves
before figures of the Virgin and the crucifixion.

For even these women, infamous though they be, seldom omit the
observance of such practices, and are in general as punctual in
repeating diurnally the formal prayer which has been taught them in
childhood, as any Christian can be, whenever the hour of _oracion_
is come, which is notified to all the population by the tolling of
the church bells.

However, Manilla appears not to be quite singular as to these matters;
for it has been frequently stated by visitors to the states of the
Church, that nine months after the great religious festival of the
Carnival there, a much greater number of illegitimate children are
born than during other seasons of the year.

This statement, which I have seen mentioned as a statistical fact,
is probably attributable to the idleness of the people, ignorant and
uninstructed as to any higher devotional feelings than those which
custom teaches; although, doubtless, religious admonition, having
a tendency to unloose the mind, and withdraw it from its customary
objects of interest, may induce these softer emotions, and among
people in whom the animal passions preponderate over those of the
mind, or of a spiritual nature, may frequently lead to conduct of
this loose description.

Perhaps, also, the sense of satisfaction after having gone through the
ceremony of attending church, and of having performed the humble duty
which all are taught to practise there, disposes the people to this
license, for they carry away no new idea with them from the sacred
house. The formal exercise there being gone through by rote, without
exciting new feelings, or touching new chords in their hearts, may
cause them to break away from strictness, and give a rein to th