lh\ ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. 



irilf every where abound The Ojftiac -\ and the 

 Iroquois \ have the fame belief. In fhort, the gene- 

 rality of the rude unpolilhed nations reprefent to them- 

 felves the life after death as a continuation of the pre- 

 fent, with a larger proportion of conveniency, reft, 

 and fenfual pleafure ; and, agreeably to this notion, ac- 

 commodate its elylium and its tar tar us to the ideas 

 and occupations they had in the world above. As, 

 therefore, a natural philofopher, from a tooth or a 

 bone, can determine the animal whole property it 

 was ; fo can likewife a connoifleur of the human race, 

 from the formation of its lower world, determine the 

 climate, mode of life and degree of cultivation, in 

 which a nation lives. 



All thefe fables taken together, unaninioufly evince, 

 that rude unpolifhed nations have no other intellectual 

 conception of the foul, than as a fubtile material 

 being, of<he human fhape, and the human mode of 

 acting. 



According to our philofcphical fyfterns, the foul is 

 fo firmly attached to the body, that it cannot leave it 

 lb long; as the man continues to live : but in the doc- 

 " trine of fpirits among fa vage nations, it enjoys a far 

 greater freedom. She can, as oft as flie pleafes, aban- 

 don the body, travel over diflant regions, converfe 

 with the fou 1 ^ of departed friends or acquaintance, and 

 it. is nothing unufual for her calmly to leave her body 



* Recueil de voyages an Nord. torn. v. p. 266. 

 •f Ibid. torn. viii. p. 409. 



| l*ifiteau, ir.ee urs des fauyages, torn. i. p. 401 & fqq. 



