ess of the
idea of God, a living witness that the religious sense, like every
other faculty, has within itself a power of endless evolution.

If we inquire the secret of the happier influence of this element in
natural worship, it is all contained in one word--its _humanity_. "The
Ideal of Morality," says the contemplative Novalis, "has no more
dangerous rival than the Ideal of the Greatest Strength, of the most
vigorous life, the Brute Ideal" (_das Thier-Ideal_).[296-1] Culture
advances in proportion as man recognizes what faculties are peculiar to
him _as man_, and devotes himself to their education. The moral value of
religions can be very precisely estimated by the human or the brutal
character of their gods. The worship of Quetzalcoatl in the city of
Mexico was subordinate to that of lower conceptions, and consequently
the more sanguinary and immoral were the rites there practised. The
Algonkins, who knew no other meaning for Michabo than the Great Hare,
had lost, by a false etymology, the best part of their religion.

Looking around for other standards wherewith to measure the progress of
the knowledge of divinity in the New World, _prayer_ suggests itself as
one of the least deceptive. "Prayer," to quote again the words of
Novalis,[296-2] "is in religion what thought is in philosophy. The
religious sense prays, as the reason thinks." Guizot, carrying the
analysis farther, thinks that it is prompted by a painful conviction of
the inability of our will to conform to the dictates of reason.[296-3]
Originally it was connected with the belief that divine caprice, not
divine law, governs the universe, and that material benefits rather than
spiritual gifts are to be desired. The gradual recognition of its
limitations and proper objects marks religious advancement. The Lord's
Prayer contains seven petitions, only one of which is for a temporal
advantage, and it the least that can be asked for. What immeasurable
interval between it and the prayer of the Nootka Indian on preparing for
war!--

"Great Quahootze, let me live, not be sick, find the enemy, not fear
him, find him asleep, and kill a great many of him."[297-1]

Or again, between it and the petition of a Huron to a local god, heard
by Father Brebeuf:--

"Oki, thou who livest in this spot, I offer thee tobacco. Help us, save
us from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, give us a good trade, and
bring us back safe and sound to our villages."[297-2]

This is