What strikes us the most in this analysis of the opinions entertained by
the red race on a future life is the clear and positive hope of a
hereafter, in such strong contrast to the feeble and vague notions of
the ancient Israelites, Greeks, and Romans, and yet the entire inertness
of this hope in leading them to a purer moral life. It offers another
proof that the fulfilment of duty is in its nature nowise connected with
or derived from a consideration of ultimate personal consequences. It is
another evidence that the religious is wholly distinct from the moral
sentiment, and that the origin of ethics is not to be sought in
connection with the ideas of divinity and responsibility.
FOOTNOTES:
[233-1] _Journal Historique_, p. 351: Paris, 1740.
[234-1] _Rep. of the Commissioner of Ind. Affairs_, 1854, pp. 211, 212.
The old woman is once more a personification of the water and the moon.
[234-2] Baegert, _Acc. of the Aborig. Tribes of the Californian
Peninsula_, translated by Chas.
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