But religion is congenial to the mind of man. The extraordinary appearances of nature attract his notice, and at last fix his attention ; and he is led, though per haps slowly, to the apprehension of an invisible and powerful cause. /lc dreads the repetition of the evils which he has formerly experienced, and which depend on circumstances beyond the operation of his strength or dexterity; and is eager to propitiate a Being, whose influence over human concerns so materially affects his happiness. The Deity is represented as the avenger of transgression ; and the unlooked for motions and con cussions of the elements are regarded as the tokens of his displeasure. His anger is shewn in the tempest and the inundation ; when he descends at midnight to punish the guilty, the thunder announces his approach, and the earth trembles in his presence. In conformity with what has now been stated, the deities which were acknowledged among such of the American tribes as had any rude notions of a superior power, were all of a malignant nature, and hostile to the interests and the welfare of man. They were considered as interfering with human concerns, only to watch the deviations of the transgressor, and to mark him for punishment. Their names were either expressive of this dreadful character, or referable to those awful natural calamities, which desolate the earth, and terrify its inhabitants. The Brazilians were so much affrighted by thunder, which in their country is tremendous and frequent, that it was not only the object of reverence among them, but the word which conveyed an idea of it to their minds was their most common and significant appellation for the divinity whom they feared. They named him Tou pan, or Thunder. But besides the calamities arising from the more terrible revolutions of nature, the clan gers of the savage state are so many and formidable, that man, encompassed with difficulty, and feeling his weakness, is rendered thoughtful by distress; and has no resource, but in a protection and guidance superior to those of mortals. He thinks of various means for procuring the interference of an unseen arm, and is constant and zealous in executing whatever may be ne cessary for the accomplishment of his wishes. The invisible and powerful agent, whose assistance he prays for, is, however, considered as a local being, and in the idea of the savage is invested with the human lorm : he is regarded as possessed of the same feelings, inclina tions, and passions, with those who dread his anger, or sue for his kindness.
When the mind has been enlightened by revelation, or instructed by science, it is still beyond the power of the human faculties, to form a direct and enlarged no tion of a spiritual agent ; and it is only by transferring the thought, of which we arc conscious, to a being who possesses it in a superior degree, that We can arrive at any thing which approaches to that notion. Our know ledge of the Divinity is of an imperfect and negative kind. It is not to be wondered, therefore, that the sa vage who is a stranger to reflection, uninformed and rude, should imagine, that the beings whose vengeance he fears, or whose aid he solicits, arc of a nature similar to his own. Among a few of the American tribes, in deed, there appears to be something like an irregular pointing at more correct notions of a deity ; they have some indistinct and wavering discernment of a being, who made the world, and presides over the changes which take place upon the earth. They even call him the Great Spirit ; but they attach no idea to the \V Ord Sjiirit, which would lead us to believe that they have any conception of a God who is divested of corporeal organs.
They have no temples, no ministers of religion, and no established form of public worship. (Guind/a, ii. 157.) And their mythology is so wild, so incoherent, and ab surd, that it does not merit a place in any regular his tory. Areskoui, or Agriskoa:, the god of battle, is the chief divinity of the NcYth American Indians. him they invoke, by a solemn imprecation, and appease by various ceremonies when they go forth to war; and they believe that they will be successful, or otherwise, ac cording as he is more or less disposed to favour their wishes. They acknowledge also a being whom they denominate the Master of Life ; and a great number of inferior spirits, or genii, who take part in the concerns of mortals, and occasion their happiness or misery. These are of course, divided into the beneficent and the malign ; from the latter, the diseases and calamities inci dent to human nature arc supposed to originate; and on the agency of the former, the cure of diseases, and suc cess in undertakings of smaller importance, arc ima gined to depend.
After endeavouring to trace the notions of a superior power, which the uncivilized inhabitants of the western continent been able to lorm, let us next attend to the means employed by these uncultivated people for averting the displeasure, or securing the protection, of the divinities which they acknowledge.
Among a people in the infancy of reflection and im provement, the deities themselves arc not so much the objects of attention, as the great changes and revolutions of nature to which they are conceived to give rise. To avert the calamities which threaten them, is, therefore, the chief concern of the rude tribes scattered over the American continent. In order to effectuate this purpose, they have not recourse, as among nations more civilized, to prayers and penance, offerings and victims; but to charms, amulets, and incantations, which arc fancied to have the power of saving them from all events of a dis astrous nature. Witchcraft prevails in every quarter of the New World. It was perhaps from knowing that sonic kinds of matter were useful in healing wounds, and painful affections of the body, that other kinds of it were supposed to be possessed of a higher and more opera tive virtue ; and able to rescue those who employed them from evils of greater malignity, and calamities of more destructive influence. Accidents of all descrip tions, whether affecting individuals or communities, were believed to lie within the reach of these portions of matter, duly worn or used. Hence, among all rude nations, there is a wonderful connection between super stition and medicine. The Manitous, or Okkis, of the North Americans, were sometimes regarded as amulets, or charms, which could preserve them from all dangers , and sometimes as divinities, whose aid they might im plore in circumstances of distress. The Autmoins, Playas, and Alexis, in other parts of the New World, were the physicians, as well as the diviners or priests, of the tribes to which they belonged. As diseases and misfortunes were attributed to supernatural influence, a variety of mysterious rites, equally solemn and ridicu lous, were prescribed and performed, in order to coun teract that influence, or convert it to the advantage of those who dreaded its effects ; and to these ceremonies, the Iroquois. and other North Americans, have recourse with a childish simplicity, as often as they are exposed to suffering.