It was as much a test of heathendom as the eating of horse-flesh, sacred to Odin, and therefore unclean to Christian men.

We pride ourselves on our superior light, and our improved civilisation, and look down on the old Roman Catholic missionaries, who converted our forefathers from heathendom in the Middle Ages.

It is well to remember that the heathendoms of America were very far from wanting living seeds of sound morality and healthy mental education.

The less culpable grounds of this languor are, first, my utter ignorance of God's purposes with respect to the Heathens; and second, the strong conviction, I have that the conversion of a single province of Christendom to true practical Christianity would do more toward the conversion of Heathendom than an army of Missionaries.