_knowledge_ of the supreme Being; no idea, I mean, approaching to that
we have, or rather nothing but a vague imagination. They have, it is
true, a confused notion of a Being, acting they know not how [Who
does?], in the universe, but they do not make of him a great soul
diffused through all its parts. They have no conception or knowledge of
all the attributes we bestow on the Deity. Whenever they happen to
philosophize upon this _Manitoo_, or great spirit, they utter nothing
but _rêveries_ and absurdities. [Are not there innumerable volumes on
this subject, to which the same objection might as justly be made?
Possibly the savages, and the deepest divines, with respect to the
manner of the Deity's existence, may have, in point of ignorance,
nothing to reproach one another. It matters very little, whether one
sees the sun from the lowest valley, or the highest mountain, when the
immensity of its distance contracts the highest advantage of the
eminence to little less than nothing. Surely the infinite superiority of
the Deity, must still more effectually mock the distinction of the
mental eye, at the same time that his existence itself is as plain as
that of the sun, and like that too, dazzling those most, who contemplate
it most fixedly; reduces them to close the eye, not to exclude the
light, but as overpowered by it.]

Amongst other superstitious notions, not the least prevalent is that of
the _Manitoo_'s exercise of his power over the dead, whom he orders to
appear to them, and acquaint them with what passes at a distance, in
respect to their most important concerns; to advise them what they had
best do, or not do; to forewarn them of dangers, or to inspire them with
revenge against any nation that may have insulted them, and so forth.

They have no idea of his spirituality, or even of the spirituality of
that principle, which constitutes their own vital principle. They have