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much as they wrouW be in a note book . We are treated to a fatiguing amount of moral reflection , not of tbe most suggestive , not of the newest ; we Save a ^ " something too much " of Missionary labour * ae 4 tbe " money valueof Christianity" !—the u&itm of t&e Missionary and the Commercial Yankee not be * njr altogether agreeable . When he tells us that Christianity has changed in the course of one generation a warlike , ferocious , infanticide race , sacrificing each other to their gods , into & race now e 0 remarkably peaceful and gentle , that property atid human life is eafer among them than on any other part oi the globe , he speaks like a minister of the Gospel ; but when he launches out into
statistical and rhetorical enthusiasm in favour of the " money value of Christianity / ' and winds up with the declaration " that if men wish to invest their jjaooey where it will yield a dividend of eighteen hundred per c # nt ., they had better put it into the treasury of the missions "—then the Yankee disagreeably predomiBates , Besides the Missionary advocate , we see here the traveller and observer ; he gives us descriptions of natural productions , observations , and disquisigitions oo volcanoes and coral reefs , and tables of export * . The whole is a confused mass , but the details have interest . From lafe in . the Sandwich Islands we extract a passage or two for our
pbilological friends ;—" Th * Hawaiian * -were particularly fcnd of annexing wai , water , if possible , in the numea of places . It is like the Eastern word wadi , water , that occurs so often in the names of places in Arabia , asWadi Mousa , Wadi Seder , &c « Undoubtedly it is the same -word , with the mere ellipsis , for euphony s sake , of the consonant <* . " And it might be remarked in passing , that not a few--of suchverbal analogies go far towards proving the original identity of the languages of Polynesia » od the East . Almost all valleys in Hawau-nei , and places that have the precious boon of water , are called Wai with some descriptive epithet , as Waiohinu , sparkling water ; Waialua , two waters , or double waterKawaihaebroken waters , &c . . . .
; , Some of the idioms are very peculiar and curious . Tber « is no auxiliary verb to be , ' nor any word to jexpr « ss th « abstract idea of being or existence . Good idiomatic Hawaiian is , therefore , in short sentences , or clauses thereof , and the same word may be a noun or a verb , according to the sense to be expressed , without change . This , and the destitution of general terms , while specific ones are numerous , constitutes a state of the language favourable to the art of poetry . " There are no variations in nouns for case , number , or person { but the mood And tenses of verbs are pretty cleariy distinguished by simple prefixes and euffijces . The mode of conjugating verbs , the existeaee of a eaueative form , and the derivation of words from roots of two ^ sy llables , are thought to indicate a resemblance and cognate origin with the Hebrew and
other Oriental tongues . " The use of the particle ' no m the way of ainrmation or affirmative emphasis , like * yes indeed , 4 no indeed , ' is very peculiar , as being so the reverse of all the languages of Europe , where it is negative . Tell an Hawaiian to stop or leave off anything he is doing , as , ua oki , ua oki pela , and he answers , I stop indeed , oki au no , or , stop no ! «• Ask a man a question to which he does not know or wish to give the answer—as , What did you do it for ?~ and the reply commonly heard will be , — He aha la ! what indeed ! Ask a native ubout the climate of a place—as , whether it is rainy or notand he will think he g ives you a very wise answer , though it . is a most amusine and unsatisfactory one to
the asker : Ina ua , ua no , If or when it rams , it rama ; Ina aole , uloe no ; If not , no indeed ; Ina uupmepine , pinepine no ; If it rain often , often indeed it rains ; A i hiki i ka manuwa ua , ua no , And when the raintime has oomt , there in rain indeed I " So , when you ask a native , sometimes , where he is going , he will answer you Vfery respectfully , E hole au makuhi E helc iti , I am going where I ' m going , or what amounts to ' tho Eng lish exprenaion , without uny of its impudence , I am following my nose ! Ank u man whom you ure employing what shall be douo 111 any exigency , and he generally answers , Eiu no ni 00 , That ' s with you , thmt ' a for you to say . whichfoitn
" There iH one l £ uwaiiu « word , r singular convenience uncl cxpre » Mvenehn , 1 would be f ^ Ud to get domesticated into English , and thut i « ' 1 ' ilikia . ' They u « o it to ai r ily uny strait , or dillieuliy , or perplexity u man is brought into by incident or mckuuHs , or the uutuuuimgctiient or ill conduct oi others . " In the epeoch of the King at the forced cession of the IhIjuhIh to Pnulct , it occurs very aptly . ' Hear yeI 1 * nuko kJUJW to you that 1 uui in perplexity ( pilikiu ) , by reason oi" difficulties into which I have been brought without cause ; therefore 1 liuve givtii "way the life o f « ur land . Hear ye ! But my will over you , my people , and your privileges will continue , Joj- I have lwpo that the life of the land will bo rowtoMMi when my conduct is jiwMtiod . ' " This word pilikia would present no difficulty to
an expert derivator : what , he would say , can be more obvious than that our pickle is a corruption of this Hawaiian word ? "A pretty pickle" being currently used for an " awkward perplexity . " Oh , these derivators !
HOPE . «• The compound word for hope is beautifully expressive ; it is manaolana , or the swimming thoughtlaith floating and keeping its head aloft above water , -when all the waves and billows are going over onea strikingly beautifnl definition of hope , worthy to be set down along with the answer which a deaf and dumb person wrote with his pencil , in reply to the question , What was his idea of forgiveness ? 'It ^ is the odour -winch flowers yield when trampled on / " From the same volume we extract a passage that will interest all naturalists : — THEO&Y OP CORAI . FORMATIONS .
" While on the subject of corals , it is in place to mention an . inference which Williams makes in his Missionary Enterprises , in regard to the formation of corals , from , the fact of their being earbonate of lime always in solution with salt water . His remarks are , that , * As corals are carbonate of lime , and as they are fotrad to exist only in warm climates , where , by the proeesa of evaporation , there is abundance of materials supplied for these insects to build with .
instead of secreting the substance , or producing it in any other way , they are merely the wonderful architects which nature employs to mould and fashion the material into the various and beautiful forms which the God of nature designed it should assume . In the Museum , at Liverpool , among the specimens of coral , there is a branching piece of coral which is a calcareous crystal , formed in the evaporating-house of the saltworks of the King of Prussia . ' ha
•^ So , in regard to sea-shells , instead of saying tt the animals secrete the calcareous coverings which they inhabit , he thinks that they emit or secrete a . gluten , to which the calcareous particles adhere , and thus form the shell . Let there be a chemical precipitation of the minute calcareous particles floating in sea-water by any means , and there might be formed a reef ; agreeably to the experiment , in which the passing of a stream of electric fluid through water having calcareous and sillcious particles in solution , produces stones .
. " The lightning of tropical regions , and the electric fluid engendered by sub-marine and other volcanoes which abound in the South Seas , may thus produce an effect adequate to the formation of those wonderful and invaluable structures . This is a much more rational theory to account for the existence of the immense coral reefs and coral islands of the Pacific , than that alluded to above , which supposes them wholly the work of saxigenous polypes or lithophytes . .
_ _ _ , ,.. __ , ___ ?• The so-called saxigenous , or rock-making , polype builds upon the reefs , and cements his singular treeimitating structures to them ; but this agency , we cannot but think , is altogether inadequate to the formation of immense islands . The more sohd and compact texture of the-coral rock , often stratified , would also lead one to ascribe to it a different origin from the corals , whose exact and beautiful cellular structure evinces an animal agency as plainly as the honeycomb of a bee-hive .
" It is , therefore , quite unnecessary to suppose the calcareous coral rocks either secreted »> y insects , or the exuviae of the insects , or the dead bodies of the insects themselves ; but they are simply carbonate of lime precipitated from the sea-water which holds its particles in solution , mixed and cemented together with broken shells and p ieces of corals . The coral , properly so called ( that which is to be seen in museums and cabinets ) , is what is built upon this rock as a foundation , by the coral insect . *? These observations made on corals as seen in the beds where they grow at the Sandwich Islands , and recorded on the spot , have induced me to compare the results thus obtained with what lias been written on this subject by certain late authors . British Review
"Ina recent article from the Morth , by Sir David Br < w . stor , he nays : —• Our rcadcra , no doubt , arii aware that the coral rock * which form islands and rt-efs hundreds of inilcH in extent , are built by small animals called polypus , thut aeerete from the lower portion of their body a Urge quantity of caibonute of lime ; which , when diifuaed around the body , and deposited between tin : folds of its abdominal coalu , eonutitutcB a cell , or polypidoin , or polypary , into the hollow of which the animal can retire . Th < > solid thus formed in culled a coral , which repreHonttt exactly the imiuial itself . ••' Tlii'so btony oolla are sometimes mnglc and cupped , HOinetiines ramifying like a tree , and kouictiineu grouped like a cauliflower , or imitating the human bruin . The calcareous cells which they build
remain fixed to the rock in which they began th < ur labouro utter the ammulH ihemni'lvci are deitil . A ^ nuw set of workmen tak / i their plact'B , and add another atoiy to the rising ediilot ) . The aume proceht * goes on Jirpm geiK * ration to generation , until the wull mtohoa the surface of the ogcun , whtxre it nocwwurily tw > minutCB .
" * These industrious labourers act as scavengers of the lowest class ; perpetually employed in cleansing the waters of the aea from impurities which escape even the waaallest Crustacea ; ia the same manner as the insect tribes , in their various stages , are destined to find their food by devouring impurities caused by dead animals and vegetable matter in the
land . w * Were we to unite into one mass the immense coral reefs , three hundred miles long , and the numberless coral islands , some of which are forty and fifty miles in diameter ; and if we add to this all the coralline limestone , and the other formations , whether calcareous or silicious , that are the works of insect labour , we should have an accumulation of solid matter which would compose a planet or a satelliteat least one of the smaller planets , between Mars and Jupiter . And if such a planet could be so constructed , may we not conceive that the solid materials of a whole system of worlds might bave been formed by the tinv , but long-continued labours of beings
tkat are invisible ? " Now here is a mixture of fancy and fact , which a single personal inspection of a coral reef by the learned theorizer would have very considerably modified . He would become satisfied , I think , that the great reef itself , as it appears at the Sandwich Island * , so far from being the work of insect labour alone , is the basis -which Nature herself lay * , in the way before referred to , by the precip itation of carbonate of lime , through electrical agency , from seawater , for the coral insect to build upon and garnish with his beautiful structures . This basis , it is true , is increased from time to time by the decay of the coral fabrics , but it is never reared by them alone from the depths of the sea . "
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . An Introductory Address , delivered at King ' s College , London , October L , 1851 . By William Bowman , Processor of Physiology . / . W . Parker and Son . It is difficult to avoid commonplace in such addresses , and not possible , perhaps , to say much that is new ; with this reservation we may recommend Professor Bowman ' s Address as an excellent one , and as presenting thoughts for the Medical Student worthy his meditation . Christian Iconograp 7 iy ; or , the History of Christian Art in the Middle Aces . By M . Didron . Translated from the French by E . J . Milliugton . Vol . 1 . ( John ' s Illustrated Library . ) H . G . JBohn . A curious and valuable work . On its completion we shall notice it at some length ; meanwhile , we commend it to our readers . The Fthnolo"u of the British Colonies and Dependencies . By K . G . Latham , M . D . Van Voorst . This volume is an expansion of six lectures Dr . Latham delivered at the Koyal Institution , M anchester . It contains a large mass of ethnological facts ; but it looks more like notes for a work than a work , and is somewhat drier than it mi « ht have
been . French Extracts for Beginners . By Felician Wolski . Master of the Korei- 'ii Language Department iu llijjh School , Glasgow . Third Kdition enlarged . Oliver and Boyd . This book will be found useful . It consists of short and pleasant extracts from the whole range of French Literature , witk the liaisons marked ( an excellent plan ) as thus , "j ' ai lu dans-une relation , " showing that the s should be sounded before the u ( as dan tune relation }; and a vocabulary is added for the assistance of the learner . Sketches of Euroftcan Capitals . B y William Ware , M . D . Literature and Life : Lectures by Edwin V . Whi ^ lo . John Chapman
The two first specimens of Chapman ' s Library for the People , an elegant shilling volume 8 «? ri « s issued for the Kail . The " Sketches" are by a clover man , and will wilo away a pleasant hour , without leaving any very distinct impression behind . As for Mr . Whipple ' e Literature and Life , the Lectures belong to the tedious Kmerboniunisin of American Literuture , which baflle our efforts to read on—we fairly broke down in the second lecture , imd no hchbc of duty hau been strong enough to urge ua to mount tho breach again . A History and Descritition of Modern Wines . Dy < yrua Jlud-« lin ; r . Third l'Ulition , with Additions and Corrections . 11 . « . lio / n
Mr . Bonn ' s Illustrated Library this mouth presents un with ( Jyrus Ivedding ' a popular History of Modern Wimn ; the illustrations being inferior to Uio . so UMually fj iven in this series . Mr . Jtedding appeuiH to have mudo considerable addition * to tlua edition , mid it is now a pleanunt and reliable hook . JIow Mkn Oiiawtvis . —Man >« » ' » » » " "" serving aiuuwil . . aid his powe . 8 , it would appear , ur « atonco exci . ed into action by < " <> beuut . Jul creation which is Knead aiouud , mid tho wonderful mllurncs by which itH beauty , U « Mr , and order are sustained . But we do not find him at first aHkin K Nature to reveal her invHterins ; he-invent * hi-r with a robe ot « loud » , and , surwyiMK the nurii ^ e of his own imagination shadowid upon the » 'i » t » ne worshi p * t . h « ideality , and leave * the bright reality unjBought . ^ - ' Jf irrttiA Quarterly Movivv ) , No . ' M .
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Nov . 15 , 1851 . J e * bt % tailtT * l 09 **
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1851, page 1093, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1909/page/17/
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