570 RESEMBLANCES OF NATIONS. 



tribe, or the offspring of the same original stock ? It is much more prob- 

 able that he would arrive at an opposite conclusion." 



On this it may be remarked that much would depend on the previous 

 training of the illustrious stranger. If his mind had been imbued with 

 a better philosophy than that which prevails in this our lower world, he 

 might look with an equal eye on the transitory fashions before him, and 

 penetrate to the first principles of things through the false glare of pomp 

 or through debasement and degradation, and so arrive at a conclusion 

 precisely the opposite of the foregoing, in the same manner as has Dr. 

 Prichard himself. 



For, from such an elevated point of view, the plumed pageant of civ- 

 ilized life might only appear to be a modified phase of the ceremonials 

 of equinoctial Africa, where the inhabitants, on their festive occasions, 

 adorn their naked bodies with leaves, and present oblations of palm oil 

 with many genuflexions to their chiefs and enchanters. Beneath the 

 feathers in the one case, and the leaves in the other, he might discern the 

 same ruling idea, and detect the same human nature ; or, if his vision 

 could reach into the past, and recall the credulous Greek worshiping be- 

 fore the exquisitely perfect statues of the deities of his country, beseeching 

 them for sunshine or for rain, and then turn to the savage Amaiman, who 

 commences his fasts by taking a vomit, and, for want of a better goddess, 

 adores a dried cow's tail, imploring it for all earthly goods, and particu- 

 larly to pay his 'debts again the same principle would emerge, only il- 

 lustrated by the circumstance that the savage is more thorough, more 

 earnest in his work. 



In fact, wherever we look, man is the same. Stripped of exterior cov- 

 Resembiances erings, there is in every climate a common body and a com- 

 among nations. mon mm( j. Are not all of us liable to the same diseases ? 

 Have not all a tendency to exist the same length of time ? Is it the 

 temperature of our body, the beat of the pulse, the respiration that we 

 observe are they not every where alike ? Or, turning to the manifesta- 

 tions of the mind, is there not, among all the tribes of oui* race, a belief 

 in the existence and goodness of God ? in unseen agents, intermediate 

 between him and ourselves ? and in a future life ? Do we not all put a 

 reliance in the efficacy of prayers ? and all, in our youth, have a dread of 

 ghosts ? How many of us, in all parts of the world, attach a value to 

 pilgrimages, sacrificial offerings, fastings, and unlucky days, and in our 

 worldly proceedings are guided by codes of law and ideas of the nature 

 of property ! Have we not all the same fears, the same delights, the 

 same aversions, and do we not resort to the use of fire, domestic animals, 

 and weapons ? Do we not all expect that the differences which surround 

 us here will be balanced hereafter, and that there are rewards and punish- 

 ments ? Is there not a common interpretation of all the varied forms of 



