404 STUDIES OF NATURE» 



Of the Senfe of Tajling. 



There is no one phyfical fenfation but what 

 awakens in Man fome fentiment of the Deity. 



To begin with the groffeft of all our fenfes, 

 that which relates to eating and drinking ; all Na- 

 tions, in the favage ftate, have entertained the be- 

 lief that the Divinity had need to fupport his 

 life, by the fame means that men do : hence, in all 

 religions, the origin of facrifice. Hence, alfo, has 

 farther proceeded, in many Nations, the cuftom 

 of placing viands on the tombs of the dead. The 

 wives of the American favages extend this mark 

 of folicitude even to infants who die upon the 

 breaft. After having beftowed upon them the 

 rights of fepulture, they come once a day, for fe- 

 veral weeks, and prefs from the nipple a few drops 

 of milk upon the grave of the departed fuckling*. 

 This is politively affirmed by the Jefuic Charlevoix t 

 who was frequently an eye-witnefs of the fact. 

 Thus the fentiment of Deity, and that of the im- 

 mortality of the foul, are interwoven with our af- 

 fections the mod completely animal, and efpecially 

 with maternal tendernefs. 



* See Father Charlevoix, his Travels through America. 



But 



