As if man ever did or ever could draw the idea of God from nature! In the identity of wind with breath, of breath with life, of life with soul, of soul with God, lies the far deeper and far truer reason, whose insensible development I have here traced, in outline indeed, but confirmed by the evidence of language itself.
Let none of these expressions, however, be construed to prove the distinct recognition of One Supreme Being.

Of monotheism either as displayed in the one personal definite God of the Semitic races, or in the dim pantheistic sense of the Brahmins, there was not a single instance on the American continent.

The missionaries found no word in any of their languages fit to interpret _Deus_, God.

How could they expect it?
The associations we attach to that name are the accumulated fruits of nigh two thousand years of Christianity.

The phrases Good Spirit, Great Spirit, and similar ones, have occasioned endless discrepancies in the minds of travellers.