140 
The people inhabiting these regions are 
destitute of every intellectual acquirement : 
they have not the most distant concep- 
tion of the existence of a Deity, nor of 
future rewards and punishments. Notwith- 
standing this, if humanity and benevolence 
constitute morality, they are a moral people. 
They likewise possess intelligence, but that 
teaches them to reject, as preposterous, 
every thing that appears inconsistent with 
their reason. 
There would be little difficulty in con- 
vincing them of the existence of a God, 
because they perceive motion, order, and 
regularity, throughout space j nor would 
it require sacerdotal learning to establish 
on their minds a perfect conviction of a 
future life. Both these truths should be 
propagated, as their political and moral 
conduct would, in a great measure, be esta- 
blished by their belief of these doctrines 5 
but here we should stop. The moment a 
divine began to preach the sublime myste- 
ries of our faith, the savages would be 
confused ; they could never imagine that 
any particular spot of this globe was so 
immediately the object of God's favour 
