and the whole communication from which they are extracted, contain a better view of Hawaiian churches and revivals than could be given by any man not a missionary. To the same purport is an earnest letter from Mr. Coan, in the same number of the Missionary Herald.*

It has often appeared to me that truth is to be arrived at from comparing the differing views and statements of different men, very much as a ship's longitude is obtained in working lunars. The labor lies in applying rightly the numerous corrections, now on this side and now on that. There are the first, second, and third corrections, with their proportional logarithms. There are the corrections of the sun's and moon's altitudes, for parallax and refraction, and the height of the observer above the sea.

There are the corrections of declinations, and distances as calculated in the Nautical Almanac at the meridian of Greenwich, for the meridian of the ship. And then there is the correction for the seconds of the moon's horizontal parallax, and the correction for equation of time, and other things, all of which are to be exactly applied, and the variation tables carefully consulted, before the navigator can find his real place. And even then it is rarely that he gets it by a lunar nearer than ten or fifteen miles.

So, in gathering truth from the observations and reports of men, you have to take into account the place,

* Vol. xxvii., p. 105.

HOW TO FIND THE MERIDIAN OF TRUTH. 219

and profession, and leanings of the observers. You must compare and correct for the differences of mental parallax and altitudes made by observers from different points of view. You must note, if possible, the aberrations from the fixed meridian of truth, when to be added and when subtracted. The various deflections and increase or diminution made by prejudice are to be ascertained. The dip of the mind's horizon is to be noted, and the different degrees of refraction made by the differences in men's ordinary intellectual atmospheres, whether clear or foggy. There is a correction to be made according as you find the observers to be short or long-sighted, and as they have the eye of an eagle or that of an owl.

And finally, there is an allowance to be made in the representations given, according as they think you will use and steer by their observations or not. And, after all, if you have patience and skill to apply all the corrections, or are so happy as to be able to do it by intuition, even as rare geniuses are said sometimes to solve mathematical problems, yet it is not certain that your result will be absolute truth. And it is seldom that a modest man will peremptorily challenge another's assent to his own particular conclusions.

While the author of this work is far from challenging assent to his reasonings and inferences from things at the Sandwich Islands, either as presented in the present volume, or in "The Island World of the Pacific,” he both asks and expects a belief in his facts, which he has certified to be accurate and true, and concerning

which he affirms only what he well knows. Conclusions may be mistaken, but facts are fixed and reliable. From the facts carefully given throughout these pages, let our readers draw their own conclusions as to the civilizing* power of the Gospel, the relative values of the Merchant and the Missionary, the results of their united labors, and the prospects of humanity for time to come in the HEART OF THE PACIFIC.

* Several laws have been recently passed by the Hawaiian Government, to promote the cause of Education; among them, one giving the proceeds of certain lands for educational purposes; an annual tax of two dollars, on each male subject, has been imposed, for the same general purpose; and a fine of one dollar is exacted of every child who absents himself from school, and a fine of five dollars, if the absence is the parents' fault. Under the fostering care of Government, and the encouragement of the missionaries, school districts are now formed all over the Islands, and school-houses have been erected even in the most remote and inaccessible places.

WORK OF MISSIONARIES IN THE BOOK LINE.

221

CHAPTER X.

SANDWICH ISLANDS LITERATURE AND LETTER-WRITERS.

As there are two wants connatural to man, so there are two main directions of human activity pervading, in modern times, the whole civilized world; constituting and sustaining that NATIONALITY, which yet it is their tendency, and more or less their effect, to transcend and to moderate—namely, TRADE and LITERATURE.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

Number of printed works in the Hawaiian tongue-Literary contributions of natives-Newspapers in the vernacular-An original work on Hawaiian historyInstallation of native ministers—A collection of old meles-Translation of an original song on the creation-Specimens of Cupid's epistolography-Letter from a damsel of Lahaina-Others from students of the Seminary-Samples of the Hawaiian madrigal-A letter from the Hilo school-girls-Others from teachers in Kohala-Curious vernacular idioms-Letters from men of Hawaii to a society of ladies in America—Comments and correspondencies—Unique epistle from a native teacher-Ingenuous working of regenerated minds-A study for the philosopher-A trophy of triumph for the Christian-Other specimens of Hawaiian literatureCheering proofs of progress.

Ir is natural, while at the spring-head of Hawaiian learning, at Lahainaluna, to say something upon the subject of Hawaiian literature. This, indeed, has yet but little to boast of as purely its own. But, aside from the entire Scriptures, there have been translated and compiled by the missionaries, within a period of less than thirty years, upwards of eighty different works.*

* M. Barrot, a French Catholic writer, having taken occasion to censure the missionaries at the Sandwich Islands for not printing more books in the Hawaiian language, upon "the progress of industry or science," and a less number upon "religious subjects, such as commentaries

Those are now serving for reading, reference, and classbooks, from the primer of A-B-C-darians, up to the text-book of students in theology.

on the Bible, catechisms for the use of the natives, and hymn-books,” the editor of the Honolulu Friend thus replies:

Whether the American Missionaries have been particularly censurable in this respect, we leave our readers to infer by perusing the following catalogue of publications issued from the American Mission press previous to 1845: