He has in superlative measure that fire and light which, coming from within, bathes his whole world, colors his images and impels him to expression. The Negro is a poet by birth. In the masses, that poetry expresses itself in religion Which acquires a distinction by extraordinary fervor, by simple and picturesque rituals and by a surrender to emotion so complete that ecstasy, amounting to automatism, is the rule when he worships in groups. The outburst may be started be any unlettered person provided with the average Negroes normal endowment of eloquence and vivid imagery. It begins with a song or a wail which spreads like fire a d soon becomes a spectacle of a harmony of rhythmic movement and rhythmic sound unequalled in the ceremonies of any other race.
Poetry is religion brought down to earth and it is of the essence of the Negro soul.
His daily habits of thought, speech and movement are flavored with the picturesque, the rhythmic, the euphonious. The white man in the mass cannot compete with the Negro in spiritual endowment. Many centuries of civilization have attenuated his original gifts and have made his mind dominate his spirit. He has wandered too far from the elementary human needs and their easy means of natural satisfaction. The deep and satisfying harmony which the soul requires no longer arises from the incidents of daily life.