ring of the grand truth so nobly expressed by the poet:--

aus des Busens Tiefe stroemt Gedeihn
Der festen Duldung und entschlossner That.
Nicht Schmerz ist Unglueck, Glueck nicht immer Freude;
Wer sein Geschick erfuellt, dem laecheln beide.

"Is it possible," says one of them, "that this scourge, this affliction,
is sent to us not for our correction and improvement, but for our
destruction and annihilation? O Merciful Lord, let this chastisement
with which thou hast visited us, thy people, be as those which a father
or mother inflicts on their children, not out of anger, but to the end
that they may be free from follies and vices." Another formula, used
when a chief was elected to some important position, reads: "O Lord,
open his eyes and give him light, sharpen his ears and give him
understanding, not that he may use them to his own advantage, but for
the good of the people he rules. Lead him to know and to do thy will,
let him be as a trumpet which sounds thy words. Keep him from the
commission of injustice and oppression."[300-1]

At first, good and evil are identical with pleasure and pain, luck and
ill-luck. "The good are good warriors and hunters," said a Pawnee
chief,[300-2] which would also be the opinion of a wolf, if he could
express it. Gradually the eyes of the mind are opened, and it is
perceived that "whom He loveth, He chastiseth," and physical give[TN-18]
place to moral ideas of good and evil. Finally, as the idea of God rises
more distinctly before the soul, as "the One by whom, in whom, and
through whom all things are," evil is seen to be the negation, not the
opposite of good, and itself "a porch oft opening on the sun."

The influence of these religions on art, science, and social life, must
also be weighed in estimating their value.

Nearly all the remains of American plastic art, sculpture, and painting,
were obviously designed for religious purposes. Idols of stone, wood, or
baked clay, were found in every Indian tribe, without exception, so far
as I can judge; and in only a few directions do these arts seem to have
been applied to secular purposes. The most ambitious attempts of
architecture, it is plain, were inspired by religious fervor. The great
pyramid of Cholula, the enormous mounds of the Mississippi valley, the
elaborate edifices on artificial hills in Yucatan, were miniature
representations of the mountains hallowed by tradition, the "Hill of
Heaven," t