"I much enjoyed my embowering walk of canes. I wish I could say, that while I sat under its shadow with great delight, and its "fruit was sweet to my taste," I had meditated with a grateful heart on Him, of whom these words imply, that his favour refreshes the wearied soul, and his "word is sweeter than the precious cane."

"While I enjoyed, under the shade of my fruitful trees, a pleasant tranquillity, in the simplicity of nature, had I endeavoured to direct the minds of the natives, who visited me, or my own household, to the glorious Parent of good, and to his blessed Son, the restorer of Eden's lost bliss, my present reflections would fill me with delight instead of shame. But, alas, I now needed instruction and reproof myself! I had so much imbibed the spirit of the natives, and joined their practices, that I never attempted to teach and improve them; or else, in a household of twenty, and sometimes of thirty people, who lived in my habitation, as my attendants and workmen, I might have done much good. But I thought of nothing but employing them for my service, in the labours of the day, or for my amusement in the diversions of the evening.

"Yet there were times, when ideas were thrown out, by the natives, respecting the immortality of the soul, which much surprised and abashed me. One day, I recollect, they were conversing about a person that was lately dead: they said to each. other, "he goes to the island through the sky," an expression by which they denoted a place very far off, as beyond the horizon, where the sky appeared to touch the earth. Wishing to know their sentiments upon this subject, I pretended ignorance and disbelief. "How can he be," said I, "in that place, when he is dead, and his body is here? Did you not bury him some moons ago?" But all they answered was, " But he is still alive." And one endeavouring to make me understand what he meant, took hold of my hand, and squeezing it, said, "Goomaogee hen, mooe bekai maogge.' ."—"This will die, but the life that is within you will never die," with his other hand pointing to my heart.

"This sentiment expressed on such an occasion so unexpectedly, with such animation, and by a young man with whom I was particularly intimate, deeply impressed me. No circumstance more affected my mind during the whole of my continuance in the South-Sea Islands. Such a conviction of the immortality of the soul, expressed by a simple untutored heathen, defies, thought I, all the arguments of presumptuous philosophers, and infidel libertines.

"I was fully satisfied that they believed the soul to be immortal. I endeavoured then to obtain more information, by ap

pearing ignorant, and desirous of knowledge on the subject. But I could get nothing farther from them. Whatever notions they might have, I conceived the poverty of their language prevent ed their explaining them upon points so abstract.

"And so immersed was I, at this time, in habits of irreligion, that I felt an aversion of heart, to give them proper instruction; nay, I wished to forget it myself; so much does guilt tie up the tongue, and harden the heart against attempting to do any spiritual good, when opportunities offer; and powerfully impel us to depart still farther from God, in order to gain a refuge from uneasy reflections.

"Afterwards, however, in conversation with some of the chiefs, I discovered that they had more precise ideas on a subject of which the commonalty had only confused and indistinct notions. They supposed that their souls, immediately after the death of the body, were swiftly conveyed away to a far distant island, called Doobludha, where every kind of food was sponta neously produced, and the blessed inhabitants enjoyed perpetual peace and pleasure, under the protection and favour of the god Fliggolayo, who had supreme power over all other Deities, and warded off from his subjects the attempts of all that would molest or injure them. Into this region, however, they believed none were admitted but the chiefs: the tooa, or lower class, therefore, having no hope of sharing such bliss, seldom speculate upon a futurity, which to them appeared a prospect "lost in shadows, clouds, and darkness."

"All, however, seemed to find consolation in calling upon a Deity, in trouble, or applying to him for a continuance of plenty. They solemnly implored his blessing, when they set their yams, and expressed their gratitude to him, when they gathered them, by offerings to Duatonga, the priest who personated him and interceded for them. Each district also called upon its appropriate god, and each change in the elements summoned them to address its peculiar divinity. Was there a storm: They called on Calla Filatonga, who, they supposed, was the goddess of the wind. Were they deluged with rain, or parched with heat: They supplicated Tongaloer, the god of the sky and rain; as they said, the Deity was very angry. Was there an earthquake: They cried out to Mowe, a giant, who, they supposed, supported the island on his shoulders. An instance of this occurred not many months after we had landed at Tongataboo. We had lain down about ten o'clock, after our evening service, to rest; when we were alarmed by a considerable shock: but our alarm was much increased, immediately after, by an universal shout of all the natives within hearing, in every direction. The next day we inquired into the cause of the uproar, and they told us, with VOL. I. New Series.

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seeming sincerity and unconcern, that the island had been shaken, because the giant Mowe, who supported it upon his shoulders, was become weary of his burden, and was beginning to fall asleep; and that for fear he should stumble and throw the island off his shoulders, they had all cried out as loudly as possible, and beaten the ground with sticks, to awake him: that by their howlings he was roused from his drowsiness, and the island was held as fast as before upon his shoulders.

"At another time, I was upon the sea-shore, when there was felt a smart shock of an earthquake, and I saw two canoes that were lying upon the beach, shaken with it. The natives did not appear at all alarmed; but immediately began to shout as loud as they could, and to beat the ground with sticks, till it was over. I began to ridicule their folly and superstition; but they took no notice of it: they said they were sure Mowe was falling asleep, and they must rouse him; and began again to howl and scream and to strike the earth.

"They supposed also that every man had an odooa or particular spirit attending him; and when any thing wonderful excited their attention respecting us or our goods or arts, as was the case with our cuckoo-clock, &c. they would say, "Oye awa koo odooa fogee!"-"O dear, he has a spirit!" The odooa or particular spirit, which presides, as they suppose, over every one, sends afflictions and maladies if he is angry, and when irreconcileable, occasions the death of the person. It is to render him propitious that the relations so often wound themselves, and sometimes put some of the sick person's wives or domestics to death.

"By this time, having become very fluent in the language, I extended my acquaintance, and was the companion of the chiefs in most of their expeditions and excursions. They much respected me, and esteemed me as a very entertaining companion; as I could now, with a ready familiarity of language, amuse them with tales and descriptions of European customs, inventions, and events; and understand their remarks and tales in answer. I had it now in my power also to entertain large parties in return, and had learned to join in their amusements with too great facility and pleasure.

"I took pains also to endear myself to the chiefs by timeing my presents, and presenting them in the most approved and ac ceptable manner. My abbee, being in a high state of cultivation, in the scarcest seasons abounded with fruits, and probably it would have been a chief source of supply to Mulkaamair. When scarcity desolated the country around, ripe plantains bended the branches of my trees, of which I would cut twenty branches and send them as a present to Mulkaamair, borne on the shoul

ders of forty men. This was the etiquette of Tonga: the manner of doing it rendered the present doubly valuable, and no present could be more acceptable and handsome than this, as Mulkaamair liked plantains more than all other fruits.

Though he was pleased with the presents sent him, yet he had a dignity of spirit, that prevented him, in the scarce seasons, from calling on me, even though he was in the neighbourhood, and but badly supplied with provisions. Had I been a native chief, he would have called without ceremony; but he was above seeking assistance from moolee, or the stranger. He was a man of such boundless generosity, that if I even went to him and asked him to let me have a field of his to cultivate, he would laugh, and say, "go and take it." Hence, whenever I understood he was in the neighbourhood, I always took care to dress a pig, and send it him; and he never omitted to return me equal kindness. This manner of bestowing was surprisingly refined. If he sent me a pig, those who brought it would say, "they had brought a pig, but it was very small, and intended for the ser vants, if I would permit them, for Mulkaamair's sake, to accept it." The servants then rose, and thanked the bearer, whilst I had only to beckon assent, without any expression of obligation or thanks. When they had departed, the servants would set it before me, and I ordered it to be dressed for the household. When it was ready, perhaps several persons in the neighbourhood would come in to partake of it, as was generally the custom at Tonga.

"But amid all these interchanges of ease and indulgence, employment, and amusement, I could not prevent the intrusion of uneasy reflections. I enjoyed no true peace and happiness, my dereliction of all religion often so pained my conscience as to render me a burden to myself. So true is the declaration of the inspired oracles, "There is no peace to the wicked."

"Whilst proceeding in this career, however, I daily advanced in wealth and dignity. Ere long I purchased more land contigu ous to Omotaanee, till my little abbee became a considerable estate. I engaged more labourers to cultivate my fields, and was very industrious in planting, dressing and cleaning them. I increased in favour with the chiefs, who esteemed me as a man of diligence and skill; and in time, I should, it is probable, have become as wealthy as many of the chiefs; as my land was very productive, and freed from the fadangyeer, or tax on labour, described above, which was a great burden to every other estate."

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Character of Shakspeare; and Observations on his Tragedies. By Madame De Stael-Holstein.

[From Boileau's Translation of her " Influence of Literature," &c.]

THE English entertain as profound veneration and enthusiasm for Shakspeare, as any nation perhaps has ever felt for any writer. A free people have a natural love for every thing that can do honour to their country; and this sentiment ought to exclude every species of criticism.

There are beauties of the first order to be found in Shakspeare, relating to every country and every period of time. His faults are those which belonged to the times in which he lived; and the singularities then so prevalent among the English, are still represented with the greatest success upon their theatres. These beauties and eccentricities I shall proceed to examine, as connected with the national spirit of England, and the genius of the literature of the north.

Shakspeare did not imitate the ancients; nor, like Racine, did he feed his genius upon the Grecian tragedies. He composed one piece upon a Greek subject, Troilus and Cressida; in which the manners in the time of Homer are not at all observed. He excelled infinitely more in those tragedies which were taken from Roman subjects. But history, and the lives of Plutarch, which Shakspeare appears to have read with the utmost attention, are not purely a literary study; we may therein trace the man almost to a state of existence. When an author is solely penetrated with the models of the dramatic art of antiquity, and when he imis tates imitations, he must of course have less originality: he cannot have that genius which draws from nature; that immediate genius, if I may so express myself, which so particularly characterizes Shakspeare. From the times of the Greeks, down to this time, we see every species of literature derived one from another, and all arising from the same source. Shakspeare opened a new field of literature; it was borrowed, without doubt, from the general spirit and colour of the north: but it was Shakspeare who gave to the English literature its impulse, and to their dramatic art its character.

A nation which has carved out its liberty through the horrors of civil war, and whose passions have been strongly agitated, is much more susceptible of the emotion excited by Shakspeare, than that which is caused by Racine. When misfortune lies heavy and for a long time upon a nation, it creates a character, which even succeeding prosperity can never entirely efface. Shakspeare, although he has since been equalled by both English