On National Character. 333° 
Athens, the abstemious Bramin, the licenti- 
ous Turk, vary in the forms of worship ; but the 
spirit of their religion is the same. They all 
seek to purchase heaven through the agency 
ef a priest. Should a negro become a maho- 
metan, he might change his dress, and perhaps 
his dinner hour, but the man would be the 
same; he would not be under the influence of 
any new motive; he would change his agent, 
not his character. The question is narrowed to 
a point; is superstition in its nature the same 
every where? If so, it must infuse the same 
spirit and produce the same character. An 
army is divided into regiments, as the world 
is into kingdoms; each regiment is known by 
its dress, its hours of exercise, its peculiar 
habits and customs ; but the character of the 
regiment is not formed by these fortuitous 
circumstances. The whole army is led by 
one general and inspired by one spirit, and 
the spirit of an army is its character, A nation 
may worship an ox, ora hero, the sun or a 
saint, without the slightest shade of difference 
of character being produced. Let us suppose 
the same people worshipping these deities in 
succession; could we in that case discover by 
the character of the people, which of the 
deities they were worshipping ? 
But if national character be not the effect of 
religious sentiments, is it not decided by the 
