Hft 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



concern on the situation and sufferings of crea 

 tures formed afier his own image ? Surely not. 

 Reflections like these would not allow me to de 

 spair. I started up, and, disregarding both hun 

 ger and fatigue, travelled forwards, assured that 

 elief was at hand, and I was not disappointed.&quot; 

 Thus was this unfortunate adventurer delivered, 

 by the care of Providence, from those accumu 

 lated distresses which had been brought upon 

 him by the malignity and inhumanity of man. 



Such are a few specimens of the inhumanity 

 displayed by uncivilized tribes towards strangers, 

 and unfortunate voyagers and travellers. They 

 t-xhibit dispositions and conduct directly repug 

 nant, to every principle of benevolence, and pre 

 sent to our view a gloomy prospect of the diffi 

 culties and dangers to be surmounted by philan 

 thropic missionaries, before the habitable world 

 cart be thoroughly explored, and before the bless 

 ings of knowledge, civilization, and religion can 

 be communicated to the benighted and depraved 

 tribes of mankind. 



MALEVOLENT DISPOSITIONS, AS DISPLAYED 

 IN DISFIGURING THE HUMAN BODV. 



The human frame, when preserved in its ori 

 ginal state, is one of the finest pieces of mechan 

 ism which the mind can contemplate. In 

 beauty, in symmetry, in the harmony and pro 

 portion of all its parts and functions, it is su 

 perior to the organical structures of all the other 

 ranks of sensitive existence. There is no part 

 imperfect or deformed, no part defective, and no 

 part useless or redundant. All its members are 

 so constructed and arranged as to contribute to 

 the beauty and perfection of the whole, and to 

 I he happiness of the intelligent mind by which it 

 is governed and directed. In combination with 

 the power of thought and volition, and when un 

 stained by malignant passions, it is a visible re 

 presentative of the Creator, having been formed 

 after his image ; and it displays, in a most strik 

 ing manner, the wisdom and the goodness of its 

 Almighty Maker. But, notwithstanding the ac 

 knowledged excellence of the human frame, it has 

 been the practice of the degraded tribes of man 

 kind, in almost every country, and in every age, 

 to disfigure its structure, and to deface its beauty; 

 as if the Creator, when he farmed it, had been 

 deficient in intelligence and in benevolent design. 

 Such practices, I am disposed to think, imply a 

 principle of malevolence directed towards the 

 Creator, and a disposition to find fault with his 

 wise contrivances and arrangements. At any 

 rate, they display a degree of ignorance and fol 

 ly, a vitiated taste, and a degradation of rnind, 

 inconsistent with the dignity of a rational intelli 

 gence. The following facts wiil, perhaps, tend 

 to illustrate these remarks : 



Condamine, when describing the natives of 

 South America, informs us, that the Omaguas, 

 and some other savages, flatten the faces of their 



children, by lacing their heads between twc 

 boards ; that others pierce the nostril?, lips, or 

 cheeks, and place in them feathers, thu bones oi 

 fishes, and similar ornaments ; and that the 

 savages of Brazil pull the hair out of their beards, 

 their eye-brows, and all parts of iheir bodies, 

 which make them have an uncommon, and a fe 

 rocious appearance. Their under-lip they piercc ? 

 and, as an ornament, insert into it a green storu;, 

 or a small polished bone. Immediately after 

 birth the mothers flatten the noses of their child 

 ren. The whole of them go absolutely naked, 

 and paint their bodies of different colours. 

 Captain Cook informs us, that, in New Zealand, 

 both sexes mark their faces and bodies with 

 black stains, similar to the tattooing in Otaheite. 

 The men, particularly, add new stains every 

 year, so that, in an advanced period of life, they 

 are almost covered from head to foot. Besides 

 this, they have marks impressed, by a method 

 unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind. 

 They are furrows of about a line deep, and a 

 line broad, such as appear upon the bark of a 

 tree which has been cut through after a year s 

 growth. The edges of these furrows are after 

 wards indented by the same method, and, being 

 perfectly black, they make a most frightful ap 

 pearance. Both sexes bore their ears : they 

 gradually stretch the holes till they are so large as 

 to admit a finger. Into these holes they put 

 feathers, coloured cloth, bones of birds, twigs of 

 wood, and frequently the nails which they receiv 

 ed from the ships. The same voyager, when 

 describing the New Hollanders, tells us, 

 &quot; Their chief ornament is a bone, which is thrust 

 through a hole bored in the cartilage which di 

 vides the nostrils. This bone is as thick as a 

 man s finger, and six inches in length. I 

 reaches quite across the face, and so effectually 

 stops up both nostrils, that they are forced to 

 keep their mouths wide open for breath, and 

 snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they 

 are scarcely intelligible to each other. Our sea 

 men with some humour, called it their sprit-sail 

 yard; and indeed it had so ludicrous an appear 

 ance, that, till we were used to it, we found it diffi 

 cult to restrain from laughter.&quot; He also describes 

 a custom of a peculiar nature which prevails in the 

 Friendly Islands. &quot; The greater part of the in 

 habitants, both male and female, were observed 

 to have lost one or both of their little fingers. 

 This custom seemed not to be charaei&amp;lt;-&amp;gt;ristic of 

 rank, of age, or of sex; for, with the exception 

 of some young children, very few people were 

 discovered in whom both hands were perfect. 

 They likewise burn or make incisions in their 

 cheeks.&quot; 



All the eastern nations are said to have a pre 

 dilection for long ears. Some draw the lobe o. 

 the ear, in order to stretch it to a greater length, 

 and pierce it so as to allow the admission }f ao 

 ordinary pendant. Tl&amp;gt;e nntivos of /Vic* -&amp;gt;o pro- 



