It abounded in appeals to comprehensive truths, was rich in resources, inventive in illustration, exhibited a fund of knowledge almost inexhaustible, and displayed a grandeur and originality of diction which astonished his hearers. Of the happiness of his invention, his declaration on the folly of taxing America, is a characteristic specimen. "We had a right to tax America and, as we had a right, we must do it. We must risk every thing, forfeit every thing, think of no consequences, take no consideration into view but our right; consult no ability, nor measure our right with our power, but must have our right. Oh! miserable and infatuated ministers! miserable and undone country! not to know that right signifies nothing without might, that the claim without the power of enforcing it was nugatory and idle in the copy-hold of rival states, or of immense bodies of people. Oh! says a silly man, full of his prerogative of dominion over a few beasts of the field, there is excellent wool on the back of a wolf, and therefore he must be sheared. What! shear a wolf? Yes. But will he comply? have you considered the trouble? how will you get this wool? Oh! I have considered nothing, and I will consider nothing but my right: A wolf is an animal that has wool; all animals that have wool are to be shorn; and therefore I will shear the wolf." p. 255. In alluding to the grandeur of his language, we reluctantly refrain from quoting again his often quoted panegyric upon Howard. It is pleasing to see such a mind occupying itself occasionally with the details of literary criticism, especially, when we can trace the same general features in the smaller exercise of its powers, which have forced themselves upon our notice in the greater. In his remarks, for example, addressed to Mr. Murphy on his translation of Tacitus, we may discover the vigour of mind, the correctness of judgment, and the originality of expression, which we have been accustomed to associate with our idea of Edmund Burke. But our space admonishes us to come to a close. The character and powers of Mr. Burke are a mine, on the variety and riches of which we might long dwell without fear of exhaustion. But we must beware of lingering too long on a single spot, however interesting, and, like travellers, must remember, that we have other scenes to visit, and other regions to explore. Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii, Ir any reader is inclined to imagine that the account of a missionary tour must of necessity make " a dull book," except perhaps to thosehappily no small number-who value it for its specific object, they have but to open the present work to feel convinced of their error. It is true that the eye of a faithful Christian missionary is not constructed like that of an ordinary observer; it overlooks many things with which the man of the world seeks to be familiar, and embraces in its comprehensive range others which are currently passed over without notice. Burke's remarks on Howard, alluded to in a former article in our present Number, apply in substance to every man who travels under the influence of some vast overpowering object, the "Aaron's rod which swallows up the rest." Howard, amidst the magnificence of Rome, looked only for hospitals and dungeons; he forewent the balmy air and genial suns of an Italian sky, for the infectious damps of caverns, and exchanged the anthems of the Sistine enchanters for the "sorrowful sighing of the prisoner." A greater than even Howard, visiting Athens, then the pride of Greece and of the world, felt "his spirit stirred within him;" but it was not at the sight of her Parthenon or Acropolis; her temple of Theseus or her Tower of the Winds; it was not at the associations raised by her Lyceum and Academy, at the visions of beauty thickly clustered along the banks of her Ilyssus and Cephisus, or at the glowing remembrance of her orators or statesmen, her poets or philosophers; but because he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." A greater still than even St. Paul, when he wept, as, from the serene altitudes of the Mount of Olives, he fixed his eye on the glory of that most glorious of cities which lay stretched in expanse before him, and beheld that sacred fane, the destruction of which was shortly to become as memorable as long had been its sacred magnificence, yielded not to the emotions of mere earth born sympathy,orwept for the departing pride of human grandeur. That burst of agony was forced from a more than mortal breast by reflections of no terrestrial mould; it was not in reference either to man or to his works, in the perishable aspect in which by nature man views either himself or them, that the Redeemer of the world contemplated the busy population of a mighty city. The standard by which he estimated the events of human history was graduated in higher worlds, and by super-human principles: he saw in the temple, not a monument of man's perishable art, but a "place where prayer was wont to be made;" and in the professed worshippers who frequented it, amidst every distinction of rank and age, of talent and endowment, he discerned and wept over" a rebellious and stiff-necked generation," the honoured depositories of the oracles of God, but the rebellious transgressors against his laws; the persecutors of prophets, and the murderers of men divinely commissioned to exhort them to repentance, and whom often he would have gathered as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and they would not. It is not then wonderful, nor, when rightly considered, is it any deroga tion either from intellectual vigour or elegant taste, if a Christian missionary, absorbed in similar overpowering contemplations passes through the arduous scene of his holy labours, with little eye or ear for objects of but passing and mundane interest. If the botanist will stoop to cull his stores on the sterile borders of perpetual congelation, or the mineralogist see in the sublime desolations of a volcano, nothing so interesting as some unclassed specimen of minute curiosity beneath his feet; is the Christian minister or missionary to be censured as a man of feeble mind, because his journal is conversant chiefly with subjects not below, but above, the grasp of less devout observers? Art and science, worldly commerce and worldlypolitics, are to him but inferior objects of attention; important indeed, but chiefly so as they bear upon those higher relations in reference to which principally, we had almost said exclusively, he wishes his commerce with his fellow-creatures to be characterised. St. Paul, whether in Corinth or at Ephesus, at Athens or at Rome, "determined to know to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" and this, not from apathy but from principle; it was not that he chanced upon such a course-by accident, or was forced to it by incapacity for other branches of knowledge, but he "determined" upon it, as the highest result of his reason, and the most splendid object which his heaven-directed imagination could suggest. But human nature, even in its best moods, asks for variety; the most faithful missionary needs some intervening parentheses of thought and action amidst his arduous toils; and in what way better can these moments be filled up, than in well directed inquiries into a variety of circumstances connected with the people, and scene of his labours? True, he is not by profession a statesman, an artist, a merchant, or a natural philosopher: his purpose is not to compile journals of art or science, of statistics or meteorology, of commerce or geography: his intercourse is with man; and not even with man chiefly as a temporal being, not with his earthly wishes or enjoyments, but with his moral habits, his spiritual necessities, his eternal destiny; he has to teach him that he has a soul, to shew him the ruin in which that best part of his nature was involved, and the infinite price by which it was retrieved; and all that is inconsistent with this object he rejects as far beneath the tenor of his exalted aspirations. But it is not inconsistent with this that he should collect, and record, and transmit to the civilized world much interesting miscellaneous information. Without wandering from his higher purpose, he may often make even art and science greatly his debtors; his journal may incidentally contain much to interest every class of readers; from those who skim volumes only for amusement, to those who are in search of truth in every department of human life and natural science. And indeed, while most earnestly intent on the spiritual concerns of his charge, if he have either eyes or ears, he will naturally make many miscellaneous observations well worth recording for the information of his fellow-countrymen and the world; while his knowledge will be still further of service in enabling him to benefit his immediate flock. Our blessed Lord himself healed the bodies while he redeemed the souls of men; and nothing, we may feel assured, is alien to the highest objects of those who profess to tread in his steps, which, without entrenching upon the duties of prayer and scriptural reading, catechising and preaching, warning and exhortation, renders the Chris tion instructor a general blessing to mankind. A missionary is certainly more directly within the sphere of his vocation in carrying out a cargo of Bibles and tracts, than of the most useful esculents or machinery; but if he can make a spare nook for a few simple donatives of the latter, he will not find that he has thereby deteriorated the value of the former; and whilst teaching the famishing and half-clad savage to sow the seed which is to minister to his bodily wants, he will perhaps have the best possible opportunity of preparing the moral soil for that seed of eternal life which shall bring forth the fruits of paradise in the kingdom of God, after all that relates only to the physical condition of our race, yea, the very earth on which we tread, has passed away for ever as a dream. We have urged this combined view of missionary duties because we observe on two different sides a tendency to extremes. The man of the world will tolerate missionaries, if, instead of being apostles for the faith, they are to degenerate into mere learned or scientific travellers; while, on the other hand, there are some who would narrow the duties of the missionary by such strict rules as in fact to interfere with much of his real usefulness to his fellow-creatures. The truth is, that a missionary is to be "a man of God;" but still he is a man, and nothing that belongs to the real welfare of man will be foreign to his feelings; and, with active habits and an enlarged mind, he may often be among the best benefactors to his race, as respects their well-being in this world, while, with all his heart and soul and strength, he is "spending and being spent" for their eternal interests. The volume before us is characterised by these combined views of missionary duty: it is strictly the narrative of a missionary tour; the extension of Christianity is the main, pressing, and never forgotten object of the travellers; but amidst their diligent spiritual pursuits they have found time and taste for numerous observations of a miscellaneous character, which will render their work interesting to the general reader,and, we trust, contribute to extend the public veneration for the plans and pursuits of Christian missionaries. 1 The greater part of Mr. Ellis's Narrative was written in the Sandwich Islands, from notes taken by himself and his fellow-travellers, while engaged in the tour it describes. The journal, when prepared, was submitted to most of the missionaries, and approved. The chief object of the tour was a survey of the religious state of the inhabitants of the island. The work introduces to our more accurate knowledge a portion of the human race, with which we have been hitherto very imperfectly acquainted; and tends to remove some prejudices which may have existed respecting the supposed invincible ferocity of the Sandwich Islanders. It proves that they are rapidly emerging from their former condition, and preparing to maintain a higher rank in the scale of nations. Above all, it furnishes a triumphant illustration of the direct tendency of Christian principles, and Christian institutions, to promote the true amelioration of mankind in all the relations of social life. Without depreciating the value of those efforts which mere political philanthropists may employ for the interests of humanity, such facts as those presented to the world, in the recent history of the Society and Sandwich Islands, prove, that Christianity alone supplies the most powerful motives, and the most effective machinery, for originating and accomplishing the processes of civilization. While the spiritual welfare and the eternal destinies of men are the primary objects of its solicitude, it provides for all their subordinate interests on true and permanent principles; and thus lays a solid foundation for personal happiness, domestic comfort, and national prosperity. These, as Mr. Ellis justly remarks, are the legitimate triumphs of the Gospel; these are moral demonstrations of its efficiency and its origin; these are proofs, in perfect harmony with other illustrations of the fact, that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men ;" and that "godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of the life which is to come." Our notice of the work before us will consist chiefly of extracts; but first we must state to our readers the persons by whom, and the circumstances under which, the tour described in it was undertaken. On these points Mr. Ellis gives us the following recapitulatory narrative. don Missionary Society despatched the "As early as the year 1796, the Lonship Duff to the South-Sea Islands; and early in 1797, missionary settlements were The established in the Marquesan, missionary left at the Marquesas, after Friendly, and Society Islands. spending about a year among the people, returned. The establishment in the Friendly Islands was relinquished, though not till some of the individuals of which it was composed had fallen a sacrifice to the fury of the islanders, in their cruel civil wars. The missionaries in the Society Islands have been enabled to maintain their ground, though exposed to many privations, and some ill usage: the greater part of them was at one Time obliged to leave the islands, in consequence of violent assault, and the civil who left, wars among the natives. Several of those who left, returned after a very short absence, and rejoined their companions who had remained; and the labours of the missionaries were continued with patience and industry for fifteen years, from the time of their first establishment, without any apparent effect. After this protracted period of discouragement, God has granted them the most astonishing sucward circumstances of the people, and cess; and the happy change in the outthe great moral renovation which the reception of the Gospel has effected, have more than realized the ardent desires of the missionaries themselves, and the most sanguine anticipation of the friends of the mission. "But though the efforts of the London Missionary Society were continued, under appearances so inauspicious, with a degree of perseverance which has since been most amply compensated, various causes prevented their making any efforts towards communicating the knowledge of Christ to the Sandwich Islanders. While their southern neighbours were enjoying all the advantages of Christianity, they remained under the thick darkness, and moral wretchedness, of one of the most cruel systems of idolatry that ever enslaved any portion of the human species. "The attention of the American Churches was at length directed to the Sandwich Islands. Their sympathies were awakened, and resulted in a generous effort to meliorate the wretchedness of their inhabitants. A society already existed, under the name of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the chief seat of whose operations was in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, though including among its members many distinguished individuals in different States of the Union. "In the autumn of 1819, a select and efficient band of missionaries was appointed by this society to establish a mission in the Sandwich Islands. They landed at Kairua, in Hawaii (Owhyhee), on the 4th of February, 1820, and had the satisfaction to find the way in a measure prepared for them, by one of those remarkable events which distinguish the eras in the history of nations, whether barbarous or civilized. This was no other than the abolition of the national idolatry, which, though it was closely interwoven with all the domestic and civil institutions of every class of the inhabitants, upheld by the combined influence of a numerous body of priests, the arbitrarypower of warlike chiefs, and the sanction of venerable antiquity, had been publicly and authoritatively prohibited by the king only a few months before their arrival." pp. 13-15. "They were accompanied by several native youths, whom a roving disposition had induced to visit America, where they had been educated in a school for instructing the aborigines of various heathen nations, designated the Foreign Mission School, and who, having given pleasing evidence of piety, and understanding English, were qualified to act as interpreters, and assist the missionaries in the acquisition of the language. The difficult task of settling the orthography of an unwritten language, required all their energies; but by diligent application, and the help of the elementary books in the dialects of the Society Islands and New Zealand, they were enabled, in the beginning of 1822, to put to press the first sheet of a Hawaiian spelling-book, and to present the natives with the elements of the vernacular tongue in a printed form. Schools were established on a scale less extended than the missionaries desired, but not without advantage, as many of their early scholars made encouraging proficiency, and have since become useful teachers. Their more public instructions were generally well received by the people." p. 16. "In the month of February, 1822, his majesty's colonial cutter, Mermaid, having in charge the vessel designed for the king of Hawaii, put into the harbour of Huahine for refreshments. The captain of the Mermaid politely offered a passage either to the Deputation from the London Missionary Society, then at Huahine, or any of the missionaries who might wish to visit the Sandwich Islands. We had long been anxious to establish a mission among the Marquesas; and as he intended touching at those islands on his return, it appeared a very favourable opportunity for accomplishing it, and at the same time visiting the American missionaries, the intelligence of whose embarkation for Hawaii had been previously received. Two pious natives, members of the church, and one of them a chief of some rank in the islands, were selected for the Marquesas; and I accompanied the deputation on their visit to Hawaii, for the purpose of aiding in the establishment of the native teachers in the former islands, observing how the people were disposed to receive instructors, and obtaining such other information as might be serviceable in directing our future endeavours to maintain permanent missionary stations among them. "In the month of March we reached the Sandwich Islands, and received a cordial welcome, not only from the American missionaries, but from the king and chiefs, to whom the generous present of the British government was peculiarly acceptable. pp. 17, 18. "Several of the principal chiefs also expressed a wish that I should associate with the teachers already engaged in their instruction. The American missionaries at the same time affectionately inviting my co-operation; and the measure meeting the approbation of the deputation, it appeared my duty to comply with their request." pp. 18, 19. "The difficulties attending the acquisition of the language, and other circumstances, had hitherto confined the labours of the missionaries almost entirely to the islands of Oahu and Tauai; but in April, 1823, a reinforcement arriving from America, enabled them to extend their efforts, particularly towards Maui and Hawaii. In order that arrangements for the establishment and permanent maintenance of missionary stations in the latter, the largest, most important, and populous island of the groupe, might be made, with all the advantages of local knowledge, it was agreed, that three of the American missionaries and myself should visit and explore that interesting island, to investigate the religious and moral condition of the people, communicate to them the knowledge of Christ, unfold the benevolent objects of the mission, inquire whether they were willing to receive Christian teachers, and select the most eligible places for missionary stations. These, though the principal, were not the only objects that occupied our attention during the tour. We availed ourselves of the opportunities it afforded, to make observations on the structure of the island, its geographical character, natural scenery, productions, and objects of curiosity; and to become more fully acquainted with the peculiar features of |