the same as the Greek accounts of the gods appearing in definite forms. With fixed forms the gods soon acquired definite characters; they gained life in the conceptions of the people, and were invested with the attributes of moral persons. Heeren has admirably shewn the consequences of this change on the culture and improvement of a country. "The more a nation conceives its gods to be like men, the nearer does it approach them, and the more intimately does it live with them."

To this principle may be ascribed the moral superiority of the Greeks over the Asiatics, the greater mildness of the Peruvians, and the purer systems of ethics contained in the sacred books of the Buddhists. It may, indeed, be said without presumption, that "God manifest in the flesh" was "the desire of all nations,”—a moral want felt by humanity, a craving of the heart, sanctioned by the understanding, which prepared, and still prepares, the way for the general reception of Christianity.*

I

* This peculiarity of the Christian religion forms the subject of Archbishop Whately's Second Essay on the Peculiarities of Christianity, which I had not read when the passage in the text was written. gladly avail myself of one paragraph in this admirable essay, to shew that my views are supported by high authority. "The religion of those who are called philosophers, whose speculations respecting the Deity have been most exalted and refined-has always been cold and heartless in its devotions, or rather has been nearly destitute of devotion altogether.

"On the other hand, the great mass of mankind, from the same cause (indistinct perceptions of the Divine nature) have, in all ages and countries, shewn a disposition to address their prayers, not to the Supreme Creator immediately, but to some angel, demi-god, subordinate deity or saint (as is the practice of the Romish church), whom they suppose to approach more to their own nature, to form a

It is not pretended that all the difficulties respecting the early civilization of America have been removed, or that the identity of the Mexican and Peruvian systems of civilization with each other, or with the systems of Asia, has been established beyond the reach of controversy. Doubts must still remain, which enter into the mysteries of nature, and have their solution involved in those secret laws of her constitution which form her links with the moral government of the universe. The farther we trace back our researches, the more rapid shall we find the growth of languages, institutions, and the differences that distinguish races to have been in ancient times. "Truly," says Dr. Wiseman,

sort of connecting link between God and man, and to perform for them the office of Intercessor. Thus, while the one class are altogether wanting in affectionate devotion, the other direct it to an improper object; giving that worship to the creature which is only due to the Creator.

"A preventive for both these faults is provided in that manifestation of God in Jesus Christ, which affords us such a display of the divine attributes, as though very faint and imperfect, is yet the best calculated, considering what human nature is, to lead our affections to God. When Christ fed a multitude with five loaves, He made not indeed a greater or more benevolent display of his power, than He does in supporting from day to day, so many millions of men and other animals as the universe contains; but it was an instance far better calculated to make an impression on men's minds of his goodness and parental care. I speak not now of this miracle as an evidence of his pretensions for that purpose would have been answered as well by a miracle of destruction; but of the peculiar beneficent character of it. So also in healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching to the people; though these are not greater acts of power and goodness than the creation of the world and all things in it, yet they are what the minds of men, at least, can more steadily dwell upon, and which therefore are the most likely to affect the heart."

Essays on the Peculiarities, etc. 161-3.

"there is a sap in nations as well as in trees, a vigorous inward power ever tending upwards, drawing its freshest energies from the simplest institutions, and the purest virtues, and the healthiest moral action. While these form the soil wherein a people is as it were deeply rooted, its powers are almost boundless; and as these alter and become exhausted, it likewise will be weakened and decay. Assuredly there was a vigour in the human mind, as compared with ours, gigantic, when the Homeric songs were the poetry of the wandering minstrel, when shepherd-chiefs like Abraham could travel from nation to nation, and even associate with their kings, and when an infant people could imagine and execute monuments like the Egyptian pyramids."

We have exhibited unquestionable proofs of the early civilization of America, and shewn that the degraded condition in which the Indians were found by Europeans was neither their primary nor their natural state. The fact of their fall is unquestionable, though the precise causes cannot now be determined: no doubt there is an immense distance between the architects and the hunters on the Ohio; but man is essentially free, he is consequently capable of change, and even in his organs most flexible; when therefore he once yields to corrupting influences, there are no limits to his degradation, no bounds to his departure from excellence, until he sinks to the level of the brute creation.

CHAPTER XIV.

SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF

CIVILIZATION.

COMPARATIVE anatomy has shewn, that every part of the animal structure has a definite relation to the habits and character of the bird or beast to which it belongs. A single bone enabled Cuvier to tell the class and order of the creature that owned it, as perfectly as if he had seen the entire skeleton. There is not a groove which any single muscle makes upon the bones of the lion, that does not shew his habits and nature; the smallest joint in the gazelle displays a reference to its timid and fugitive disposition. Organization irrevocably predestines and predetermines the whole life and conduct of the brute creation; it would seem as if a change of structure, however minute, might deprive the dove of her tenderness, or the eagle of his rapacity.

We can find no such determination of character in human organization; anatomy reveals nothing to shew that man was designed to doze away his existence like an indolent Asiatic, or to run down the wild deer by his restless chase, like the American Indian. In fact, his organization shews, that through custom or education he might easily exchange one state for the other. In the pursuits of life, animals exercise no choice; instinct at once leads them to the course of action which

their organization fits them to perform, and as this instinct is physical in its nature, so is it strictly limited in its development to the supply of physical wants and necessities. We speak of the ferocity of the wolf, the cunning of the fox, the tenderness of the dove, the rapacity of the eagle, the prudence of the ant, and the ingenuity of the bee, without attaching praise or blame to the animals for the display of these qualities, and we habitually classify them in our minds not less by the difference of their dispositions than of their powers. The accordance of instinct, and consequently of habits, between creatures of the same race is invariable; and it seems to become more and more definite the lower we descend in the scale of creation, so that the very name of an animal at once suggests to us a notion of its character.

Now the faculty analogous to instinct in man, exhibits itself not in physical manifestations, but in approximation of feelings, similarity of affections, and facility of adaptation; and the perpetuation of these characteristics is secured by the universal gift of speech, an attribute common to the entire race. We have seen that all men display, under circumstances favourable to their development, the power of domestic affections, the disposition to establish and maintain mutual interests, a desire to accumulate and preserve property, and with some trifling deviations, a general agreement on the leading points of the moral code. All analogy then points to the inference that men, however they now differ, were assuredly designed for the same state, and consequently that they must have been originally placed therein.