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order are indicative of a government competent to its purpose; yet Shakerism as a system, appears like some complex piece of mechanism, beautiful and regular, but liable to be put out of order if any of the concealed springs lose their elasticity.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE INDIANS.

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HAVING mentioned the state of religion in general, and of that of several independent societies, I am led by a natural chain to take some notice of the Indians, whose religion seems to demand more notice that it has hitherto obtained. When Penn first landed in Pennsylvania, he was so struck with their Jewish countenances, and with the similarity of some of their customs to those of that people, that he conjectured they might be the descendants of the lost ten tribes. supposed, what has since been proved true, that Asia and North America were so nearly contiguous, that they might have migrated from one continent to the other. Whether the Indians Penn saw, were of different aspect to the other tribes cannot now be known, but none of the present race, so far as my observation goes, and judgment may be formed from portraits, are like the Jews. I certainly saw a youth among the Seneca Indians, whom if I had met in Houndsditch, or in any other street in London where they haunt, I should have taken for one of them;

but this was a solitary instance. The customs alluded to by Penn are in degree correspondent to some of the Jewish, but not more so than some prevalent amongst the Negroes in one district in Africa, nor than others amongst the Asiatics. There is however one remarkable particular in which they agree with the Jews, and which deserves the more notice from its being one that no other barbarous people share with them. Their religion is pure theism undefiled by idolatry or symbolical representations of the Deity. But if they were the descendants of the Jews, is it probable that their worship would be without ceremonies? Doctrines may be forgotten or changed, but ceremonies are generally continued, even after their origin is forgotten, and when they are totally useless. Now the Indians have so few ceremonies that it strongly militates against Penn's idea. But how astonishing is it, that they alone of all savage nations should believe in the unity of God, and worship him without the aid of visible objects! With the exception of a tribe or two in Virginia now extinct, who had framed an image to which they paid their adorations, there is not I believe an instance to the contrary on record within the territory of the United States. One of the early colonists in New Jersey, who has left some ac

count of the Indians in that State, mentions that their worship consisted in the abstraction of the mind from external objects, under the belief that the Great Spirit would hold communion with the soul when humbly prostrated before him. This worship is still practised by them, at least by such amongst them as are religious. They are all believers in a future state of rewards and punishments, which they generally suppose will be of a kind like those desired or dreaded on earth, such as the abundance or privation of corporeal comforts. The great purity of their worship may be a cause why missionaries have been able to effect so little change amongst them. It may be possible, and in some cases comparatively easy to convince a man of the absurdity and wickedness of idolatry; and when that conviction is established, to persuade him of the Divine origin of Christianity. But those who labour to convert the Indians have no such ground to work on. Though the foundation for Christianity is laid, the superstructure cannot easily be raised. If it could have been raised by any people, we might suppose that the Friends, whose principles tally so much with theirs as far as they go, would have done it. But they have effected as little as others. Indeed it would be a very difficult thing to persuade them to em

brace a religion which forbids war, and retaliation for injuries.

The origin of the Indians, like that of most other nations, is involved in obscurity. Many hypotheses have been formed, but all insufficiently supported by facts to carry full conviction. That of their being the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel has been a favourite one with others besides Penn. A volume entitled the Star in the West, was published by an American a few years ago, for the express purpose of proving its probability. But the author was so incompetent to his task, that his book has the appearance of being the production of a schoolboy. The instances he has given of a few Hebrew words amount to little, since it is well known that they speak nearly as many languages as there are tribes. Many of these may be reasonably supposed to be cognate. But I was assured by Indians of several tribes that they had listened to the conversation of other Indians without being able to understand a single word. There must therefore be a radical difference. The language of one tribe has, as I was assured by a literary gentleman, many Welsh words in it; a circumstance which may be credited without attaching faith in the idea of Madoc's settlement in

any

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