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inductive science, the mind is looking abroad for the materials of the science. For if we are to arrive at general truth by the careful induction of separate facts, the question instantly occurs, what are the facts? and how may access be had to them? Just as the botanist or the mineralogist must first collect specimens of plants and minerals, before they can proceed to that nice analysis and comparison, which will enable them to reduce the whole into subjection to general laws. All beings, all things, and all events are but so many manifestations of God; all these, therefore, form the inconceivably rich and varied and boundless material, out of which the theologian is to construct the noble science to which he is devoted.

Even before they are very minutely examined, these multifarious and almost infinite materials, naturally fall into a certain order. None can be more simple than the customary three-fold division, of the book of nature, the book of providence, and the book of revelation. Under the first division will be comprised all those facts which are technically comprehended in the word Physics; in the second, all those events in which intelligent beings are concerned, under the government of God; and in the third, all those higher and more glorious manifestations of himself which are recorded in the Bible. The book of nature teaches us that there is a God of inconceivable power and wisdom. The book of providence teaches us that he is a moral being, possessed of very high attributes of justice and goodness. The book of revelation teaches us, that there is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, and one Holy Spirit, who spake by the prophets, constituting the one only living and true God; that this one God is a Spirit, infinite in power and wisdom, and infinite in mercy and truth; and that besides him there is no God.

It is remarkable, that of these three departments of the boundless field where the materials are to be sought for the construction of an inductive system of Theology, only the first has been fairly and fully examined on the principles of the inductive philosophy. That class of works commonly entitled NATURAL THEOLOGY, has been constructed upon a laborious induction of facts, to prove from the material works of his hands, that there is a God of great power and wisdom. Further than this, the first book of nature does. not go; and its well instructed students pretend to derive

from it no further knowledge of God, than that of his being, and his very great power and wisdom.

But when the inquirer passes on to the book of providence, to that class of subjects treated of with such clearness and power by Butler in his Analogy, and by all the writers on Ethics, and the moral of History, and by the advocates of that cold and barren system, generally known by the term Natural Religion, he is amazed to find, that with the exception of the immortal Butler, few, if any, have been humble and docile students of the facts in the case, according to the principles of the inductive philosophy. But, inasmuch as the materials upon this portion of the field could only lead us imperfectly to spell and guess out the very same moral attributes of Jehovah, which it was the very design of the facts of revelation, to set forth in the clearest and most convincing point of view, the defect which has been mentioned is less to be deplored..

It is sad indeed to observe that the truths of the Book of Revelation have, most commonly, been approached in a far different spirit from that which becomes an inductive inquirer! From the days of Origen to this hour, philosophy, falsely so called, has first adjusted a preconceived system by the aid of a pernicious education, prejudices, or imagination, and has thus proceeded to string the facts of Scripture upon this three-fold cord, and to torture them into the requisite shape, whether they would or not. This spirit has shed a noiseless, unseen, but most deleterious influence over the theology of our own country, and in no section of it, perhaps, more fatally, than that where theology has been most studied. A metaphysical system, in strange and extreme contradiction to the inductive system, seems to have guided some of their most highly gifted inquirers. And it is much to be feared, that this dereliction of the only sound principle of investigation, will hereafter lead to a much wider departure from simple scriptural truth, than the devotees of metaphysical theology seem at present to apprehend.

Simply state the case inductively, that the Bible is a record of words and facts which embody the revelation of God to mankind, and the duty instantly becomes obvious, of analysing those words and facts, reducing them, by a method strictly inductive, into a proper order, and then, of deducing from them the legitimate general truth. As the beau

tiful and living carpet which covers and adorns the earth is the proper field of the botanist, so the Bible is the proper field of the theologian; and the words and facts of the Bible are as much the materials of his science to the one, as plants and trees are to the other. Each should proceed with pa tient induction, and the general law or doctrine to which each will thus arrive, must be the truth.

Select for example the words and facts which relate te the existence, the nature and the attributes of God, directly considered; and to whatever general law or doctrine, the words and facts of Scripture inductively examined and arranged conduct, that is the truth on this subject, as far as God has been pleased to make it known. In like manner, select, analyze, and arrange the words and facts which re late to the soul of man, its essence, moral character and fina destiny, and the doctrine, inductively deduced from them, it the truth. The same process should, most evidently, be adopted in reference to every particular point to which the Scriptures relate. And where the position is less directly ap proachable, and is, in any degree, matter of argument and inference, here, as in all other inductive sciences, the premises should be sustained by their facts, the chains of reasoning and the conclusion by theirs-all and each sustained and proved by express warrant of Scripture.

This method would soon land the theological student where the student of nature almost instantly finds himself under the guidance of correct philosophy, standing firmly upon the facts, without much danger of being bewildered by the theories with which they have been blended, or to which they have been made subservient. He will soon feel fully established in the FACT of the existence of one God; and the manner of his existence, as three persons and one God, will no more perplex him, than the fact that the brain is the seat of volition, will be perplexed by the question how nervous influence is diffused in order to carry volition into action. The fact of the immortality of the soul, will then be easily separated from all curious speculations upon the essence of the soul. The fact of spiritual regeneration by the Holy Ghost will then be dissevered from all nice questions as to the mode of the Spirit's operations. And, in general, the facts of Christianity, establishing all its prominent and essential doctrines, will be the truth to which the student will hold, with calm certainty, whilst the specula

tions with which they have been entangled, will simply serve to amuse or to amaze him, whilst he weeps over the vagaries of which the mind of man has been capable.

It would certainly seem as if it were high time that this method of learning and teaching the science of Theology were understood and practised by all those who are training young men for the ministry, or at least in those schools where the sacred sciences are exclusively taught. Were this the case, and were our religious periodicals imbued with the same spirit, it would not be long before those weighty and impulsive productions which emanate from living ministers on the Lord's day, would be cast in the same mould; and the slow process commenced, by which the common mind of the great body of Christian people, would be elevated above the entanglements of party, to which a feverish existence is given, only by a mistical, mistaken, or pernicious theory, relative to some unexplained or unintelligible point in polemics.

The better educated and more reflecting classes of persons are those which first repose on correct principles of investigation. It is a slow process to raise the common mind from that unhappy level where the mists of errour and the demons of party spirit delight to fix their abode; and where, strange to say, the common mind seems delighted to find itself, were it only for the sake of the excitement ministered by its own superstitions. A most torturing belief in supernatural beings and appearances, has very reluctantly and slowly given way to a correct philosophy, which delivers the imagination from this degrading and yet seductive thraldom.

In like manner, it may take a long time before plain, simple, scriptural Theology, constructed wholly out of the facts, and calmly contented simply with the facts, will take the place of a misty and vague kind of speculation upon the subject, which stimulates the imagination and the passions of men, and converts them into ferocious partizans; but the time will come, may the God of truth and of peace hasten the day! when the memory of our present religious controversies will seem as strange to us or to our children, as the memory of the dreams of the alchymist, or the speculations of the schoolmen. That principle which has set men right on other subjects, will not permit their minds forever to rove at random on that most inductive of all sciences, the science of Theology.

ART. V. MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS AND LANGUAGES

OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY HENRY R. SOHOOLCRAFT, Esq., Michilimackinac, Michigan.

Constitution of the Algic Society, for encouraging Missionary effort in evangelizing the North Western Tribes, &c., with an abstract of its Proceedings. Detroit, 1833. pp. 23.

The Gospel according to St. John. Translated into the Chippewa. By Peter Jones. London, 1831.

It is known that the Indian tribes of this continent live in a state of mental bondage to a class of men, who officiate as their priests and soothsayers. These men found their claims to supernatural power on early fastings, dreams, ascetic manners and habits, and often, on some real or feigned fit of insanity. Most of them affect a knowledge of charms, and practice incantations. Availing themselves of the popular superstition of their tribes-people, which animates the air with spirits of benignant or malign character, they arrogate a power over these myriads of the imagination, and thus dispense the awards of fate to their infatuated countrymen. Unlike the Magi, whom they strikingly resemble, or the priests of a more splendid era of mythological fable, they are surrounded by no circumstances of outward pomp. The simple wrapper that covers a warrior's breast, or the frontlet that decorates his brow, suffices for the priest. He, indeed, affects humility in dress, and is often the most meanly clad person in the village. But the response which he utters from beneath a cone of deerskins, is invested with as much solemnity, as if it issued from the most sacred recesses of Delphos.

Some of these men acquire a character for wisdom, and skill in divination, which draws votaries from distant tribes, and their names are spread abroad as prophets. They were denominated powwows, in the early settlement of the country; and are frequently referred to, in the journals of modern travellers, as medicine men, jugglers, and Wabenos,— terms not perfectly synonymous, but which we find it convenient to class together. It is seldom, in the history of the tribes, that one of these men has acquired celebrity, without his falling into the hands of some ambitious leader, who has

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