How to Observe: Morals and MannersMartineau, Harriet
Science
How to Observe: Morals and Manners
Martineau, Harriet
Manners and customs; Observation (Psychology); Social psychology -- Methodology
What the stranger may thus learn in our own country, we may learn in
his, whatever it be. The large plain churches of Massachusetts, their
democratic benches (in the absence of aristocratic pews) silently filled
for long hours of a Sabbath, as still as a summer noon, by hundreds and
thousands who restore the tones of their pilgrim ancestors in their
hymn-singing, and seem to carry about their likeness in their faces,
cannot fail to instruct the observer.--Then there is the mosque at
Cairo, with its great tank or fountain of ablution in the midst; and its
broad pavement spread out for men of every degree to kneel on together;
its doors standing wide from sunrise to sunset, for the admission of all
but women and strangers; its outside galleries, from which the summons
to prayer is sounded;--these things testify to the ritual character of
the worship, and to the low type of the morals of a faith which despises
women and strangers, giving privileges to the strong from which the weak
are excluded.--Then there is the Buddhist temple, rearing its tapering
form in a recess of the hills, with its colossal stone figures guarding
the entrance, and others sanctifying the interior,--all eloquently
explaining that physical force is worshipped here: its images of saints
show that the intercessory superstition exists; and the drum and gong,
employed to awaken the attention of the gods, can leave little danger of
misapprehension to the observer. There are lanterns continually burning,
and consecrated water, sanctified to the cure of diseased eyes.--Such
places of worship tell a very plain tale; while there is not perhaps a
church on earth which does not convey one that is far from obscure.
The traveller must diligently visit the temples of nations; he must mark
their locality, whether placed among men's dwellings or apart from them;
their number, whether multiplied by diversity of theological opinion;
and their aspect, whether they are designed for the service of a ritual
or a spiritual religion. Thus he may, at the same time, ascertain the
character of the most prominent form of religion, and that of the
dissent from it; which must always illustrate each other.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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