PHILOLOGICAL VAEIETIES. 69 



As to the Esquimaux, since 1612, Whitebourne wrote that \ 

 they had no knowledge of God, and lived without any form of 

 civil government. And we can add to this distant testimony 

 the following lines from the journal of Sir John Ross, who 

 lived for a long time in the midst of them. ' ' Did they com- 

 prehend anything of all. that I attempted to explain, explaining 

 the simplest things in the simplest manner that I could devise ? 

 I could not conjecture. Should I have gained more had I 

 better understood their language ? I have much reason to 

 doubt. That they have a moral law of some extent ' written 

 in the heart/ I could not doubt, as numerous traits of their 

 conduct show, but beyond this, I could satisfy myself of no- 

 thing; nor did these efforts, and many more, enable me to 

 conjecture aught worth recording. Eespecting their opinions 

 on the essential points from which I might have presumed on 

 a religion, I was obliged at present to abandon the attempt, 

 and I was inclined to despair."* 



This extract is so much the more important for our thesis, 

 since we perceive in every word the chagrin of a man who did 

 not find in the hearts of others a fraternal echo to his dearest 

 sentiments. It is, in truth, a difficulty peculiar to the study of 

 questions of this nature. We must, therefore, be very careful 

 in discussing the value of any testimony which may be brought 

 forward, and to distrust those minds which begin by declaring 

 a priori the universality of beliefs, hopes, and fears among 

 mankind, as a natural consequence of the primitive unity of 

 the human species. We must always examine most minutely 

 the accounts of travellers to which we are obliged to refer. 

 Thus, for example, it is evident that the older the evidence, 

 the better it is ; but at the same time, the farther it goes back, 

 the less chance there is that it emanates from an independent 

 and impartial mind, free from all prejudice. 



Happily, the exaggeration of these ideas must often suffice 

 to put us on our guard against them, like the candid Jesuit, 

 whose zealous but hazy faith thought it had discovered traces 

 of St. Thomas's preaching in Brazil. f In an otherwise good 



* J. Eoss, Narrative of a Second Voyage, p. 548, 1835. 



f Emanuel Zobrega wrote to the Company from Brazil, in 1552 : " The 



