By the premature death of Mrs. Schoolcraft was lost a mine of poesy, to
which few had access, and from which Mrs. Jameson would have known how
to coin a series of medals for the history of this ancient people. We
might have known in clear outline, as now we shall not, the growths of
religion and philosophy, under the influences of this climate and
scenery, from such suggestions as nature and the teachings of the inward
mind presented.
Now we can only gather that they had their own theory of the history of
this globe; had perceived a gap in its genesis, and tried to fill it up
by the intervention of some secondary power, with moral sympathies. They
have observed the action of fire and water upon this earth; also that
the dynasty of animals has yielded to that of man. With these animals
they have profound sympathy, and are always trying to restore to them
their lost honors. On the rattlesnake, the beaver, and the bear, they
seem to look with a mixture of sympathy and veneration, as on their
fellow settlers in these realms. There is something that appeals
powerfully to the imagination in the ceremonies they observe, even in
case of destroying one of these animals. I will say more of this
by-and-by.
The dog they cherish as having been once a spirit of high intelligence;
and now in its fallen, and imprisoned state, given to man as his
special companion. He is therefore to them a sacrifice of peculiar
worth: whether to a guardian spirit or a human friend.
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