to a guardian not of this world, not present to the senses, man is for the moment a theist, and often a monotheist. But when we look from aspiration to doctrine, from the solitary ejaculation to ritual, from religion to myth, it would probably be vain to suppose that a conscious belief in one God, the maker and creator of all things, has generally prevailed, either in America or elsewhere. Such a belief, consciously stated in terms and declared in ritual, is the result of long ages and efforts of the highest thought, or, if once and again the intuition of Deity has flashed on some lonely shepherd or sage like an inspiration, his creed has usually been at war with the popular opinions of men, and has, except in Islam, won its disciples from the learned and refined. America seems no exception to so general a rule.
An opposite opinion is very commonly entertained, because the narratives of missionaries, and even the novels of Cooper and others, have made readers familiar with such terms as "the Great Spirit" in the mouths of Pawnees or Mohicans. On the other hand, Mrs. E. A. Smith says, " 'The Great Spirit,' so popularly and poetically know as 'the God of the Red Man,' and 'the happy hunting-ground,' generally reported to be the Indian's idea of a future state, are both of them but their ready conception of the white man's God and heaven."[1] Dr. Brinton, too,[2] avers that "the Great Spirit" is a post-Christian conception. "In most cases these terms are entirely of modern
- ↑ Bureau of Ethnology's Second Report, p. 52.
- ↑ Myths of the New World, New York, 1876, p. 53.
