As children of nature, we are intensely poetical. We first Americans mingle with our pride an exceptional humility. Spiritual arrogance is foreign to our nature and teaching. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The holy silence is God's voice.
Silence is the cornerstone of character.
We believe that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possess a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul of conscious itself. The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such an object of reverence. We original Americans have generally been despised by our white conquerors of our poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that our religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury. It is simple truth that we Indians did not, so long as our native philosophy held sway over our minds, either envy or desire to imitate the splendid achievements of the white race.