286 Dr. Falconer on the Influence , 
cerned in fcenes of horror. Deaths, (hipwrecks, 
ftorms, and famine, were much more frequently 
predicted, than the chearful and exhilerating 
circumftances of life; which forms no incon- 
fiderable prefumption, that the ideas that oc¬ 
cupied their minds, were principally of a gloomy 
and melancholy afpect. 
The notions of people, concerning a future 
ftate, appear to be much influenced by the 
fcenery of fuch a country. Some nations have 
been fo fenflble of the difadvantages and incon- 
veniencies attending it, that they have formed 
their fyftem of future happinefs, apart from any 
connection with the appearance of the country. 
Thus the Scythians, and the northern nations 
of Europe, held their Ely Hum to confift, in the 
joys of wine, and of company collected in a fpa- 
cious building. The American Indians, for 
fimilar reafons, have feleCted fuch circumftances 
only, as ferved moft to temper the gloomy and 
fevere appearance of nature. Thus, they expect to 
be tranflated to a country, where the Iky is always 
clear and unclouded, and a perpetual fpring 
prevails. On the contrary, when they mean to 
deferibe a place of future torment, they figure it 
as po fie fling all the dreary appendages belonging 
to their own country, but in a greater degree. 
Thus the Ifurin , or hell of the northern nations, 
was fuppofed to be a place dark, gloomy, cold, 
and deftitute of every convenience of life ; the 
former 
