Page:Medical Heritage Library (IA b30530933).pdf/102

82 the Meaning would be confirmed in the use of a Fetish.

That this is not barely a Supposition, but an experienc’d Truth, is evident in the Condition, the Actions, and Manner of these poor People. They are set down as from the Clouds, without Guide, Letters, or any means of Cultivation to their better Part, but what immediately strike their Senses from beholding this Universe, and the Beings contained in it, their Deductions from whence, as to a Deity devoid of Matter, is next to impossible, therefore we say mean and pitiful. They can go no further without Learning, than concluding all things about them good or evil, to have a God or a Devil in it that immediately either benefits or hurts them; and thence their Worship.

That these People could arrive to better Knowledge by the use of proper Means and Instruction, there is no manner of doubt. They give proof enough that their natural Endowments are capable of following any Pattern; but as it is, their Actions demonstrate that the Soul wants a proper Nurture as well as the Body, and will hardly, without a Miracle, increase its Knowledge to any degree above what at present it appears; but when the Seeds and Principles are laid by letter’d Nations, it is not then nigh so difficult to improve. They want all, and their