In every religion there is an element of the supernatural,
varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees. The
Indian was a logical and clear thinker upon matters within the
scope of his understanding, but he had not yet charted the vast
field of nature or expressed her wonders in terms of science. With
his limited knowledge of cause and effect, he saw miracles on every
hand,--the miracle of life in seed and egg, the miracle of death in
lightning flash and in the swelling deep! Nothing of the marvelous
could astonish him; as that a beast should speak, or the sun stand
still. The virgin birth would appear scarcely more
miraculous than is the birth of every child that comes into the
world, or the miracle of the loaves and fishes excite more wonder
than the harvest that springs from a single ear of corn.
Who may condemn his superstition? Surely not the devout
Catholic, or even Protestant missionary, who teaches Bible miracles
as literal fact! The logical man must either deny all miracles or
none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps,
in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.
If we are of the modern type of mind, that sees in natural law a
majesty and grandeur far more impressive than any solitary
infraction of it could possibly be, let us not forget that, after
all, science has not explained everything.
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