To me it appears, that their Appetites and Passions would have the first Regard; they are gnawing and troublesome, requiring immediate Care and Redress; and the Intervals from supplying them; it’s very natural to suppose, would some of them be employed in ruminating upon their own Beings, in what manner, and to what end they were placed here; and on all those other Beings that surround them; the Consequence of which must be, Amazement and Wonder: And as they experienced Pain and Sickness, some things would terrify, and some please, according as they were persuaded they promoted or averted such ill or Good. Now as the Understandings of Men, supposed as above, would be mean and low, not able to account for these Effects from their Causes, the natural Power and Tendency in this, to promote that: I say, not knowing this way of Induction, they will readily ascribe something supernatural to any Materials used about them; they may want the Word, but the Meaning would be confirmed in the use of Fetish.
That this is not barely a Supposition, but an experienc’d Truth, is evident in the Condition, the Actions, and Manner of these poor People. They are set down as from the Clouds, without Guide, Letters, or any means of Cultivation to their better Part, but what immediately strike their Senses from beholding this Universe, and the Beings contained in it; their Deductions from whence, as to a Deity devoid of Matter, is next to impossible, therefore we say mean and pitiful. They can go no further without Learning, than concluding all things about them good or evil, to have a God or a Devil in it that immediately either benefits or hurts them; and thence their Worship.
That these People could arrive to better Knowledge by the use of proper Means and Instruction, there is no manner of doubt. They give proof enough that their natural Endowments are capable of following any Pattern; but as it is, their Actions demonstrate that the Soul wants a proper Nurture as well as the Body, and will hardly, without a Miracle, increase its Knowledge to any degree above what at present it appears; but when the Seeds and Principles are laid by letter’d Nations, it is not then nigh so difficult to improve. They want all, and their Understanding therefore in spiritual Matters is poor and naked, like their Bodies, which if they cannot provide of Necessaries with the Materials about them; how insuperable is the other, where all is out of sight?
To come to the point, the Negroes have chose Woods, Lakes, Hills, or a part of these, a bundle of Chips, or Roots, a Stone, a piece of Metal, or the like, for their Fetishes. Now what is more likely, or indeed grateful, than assigning a supernatural Power, and of course reverential Respects, to those very things they are immediately conversant with, and experience their Effects? For the Hill, the Wood or the Lake may afford Sustenance from time to time; perhaps in Extremity, either may have contributed to their Preservation or Defence from wild Beasts; or Panyarring, a more dreadful Evil. And others of them (for there are a great Diversity) have as a Charm, cured a Sickness, been propitious in their Journeys by Land or Water, in their Hunting, Fishing, or other Exercises; that is, they have been safe, they have observed, and protected from Danger, Distress, or Hurt, while they bore such a Fetish about them, or in the House, or Boat, they lodged or travelled in; which are the Reasons, and all the Reason they can give for their Choice. And some have descended from Father to Son with great Reputation, two, three; or more Generations, until the Proprietor could not observe any of the usual Effects, or was improsperous; and thus, whether he imputes it to the Age and Decay of the Fetish, I cannot tell; but he rejects it, and from some lucky Accident to him takes a newer, and consequently a better: Immemorial Custom giving strength to the Persuasion and the Practice.
Nor does this appear that unaccountable and ridiculous Folly some would have it. All material Beings are equally incomprehensible as to their Seed and real Essence; the Existence of a Straw as mysterious as the Existence of the Sun: Quodcunque vides, Deus est. No Man can comprehend how Matter came first into being, nor, which is nigher him, how the Atoms that compose a Stick, Stone, or Metal, are supported and hang together in that Bulk; or what diversifies them, that one should be fusible, another malleable, some both: I say, to consider these, and some other Attributes of Matter in the Essence, it will be impossible to explicate, without putting the Deity to it; and if infant Reason cannot reach above a material God, what I think would first and most naturally occur, would be the Objects about us, as they did us good or hurt, the Fetishes of the Negroes. The original Gods, obvious to the first and darker days of Reason, were in my opinion, Stocks and Stones, Serpents, Calves, Onions, Garlick, &c. Not that these things appeared to them in the exalted Attributes of Spirit, Creator, Omniscience, &c. then inconceivable: No; they only could observe that all the parts of Nature were mysterious in their Essence and Operations, and therefore attracted their Esteem and Worship.
That the wiser Idolaters (as called) set up the Sun to worship, from the prodigious Advantages of Light and Life to the World, I take to be a Refinement on this ancienter Heathen Mythology; an improved Understanding that perceived the Heavenly Bodies, the Sun in particular, to be the Source of all Benefit and Fertility to the Earth. That this was so, I am more inclined to think, from the ignorant and contrary Conclusions still made by many People born in more enlighten’d Countries, concerning the Influence and general Benignity of them. It is hard to persuade some of such universal Good, when they are evidently, they think, Sufferers in the failure of their Crops, Plagues, and Famine. Too much Rain or Sun-shine must ever have disturb’d some body, and mixed Murmur with Devotion, removed only, as Knowledge increased:
The dripping Sailors curse the Rain,
For which poor Farmers pray in vain.
Again, if we can think they have conceived any Notions of a future State, as is not improbable; have a natural Affection or Respect; the Custom was on neither account; preposterous of John Conny, to bury Pipes, Tobacco, Brandy, or what else the deceased loved or wanted. It answers to the Pomp and Decency of our own Funerals, only more significant.
From the Negroes Religion, may be drawn these Observations. First, The Foundation of all Men’s Religions is taken from this visible Universe, as ancient as the Creation. The greater Lights that have from time to time appeared in the World, are only Refinements and Superstructures upon this Prop; first Milk, and then Meat.