CHAPTER XII. SIDE VIEWS OF HAWAIIAN CHARACTER AND DESTINY, Relative position and fortunes of the posterity of Shem and Japheth -Practical bearing upon the labours of missionaries-The ground principle of success-Variety of talents called into exercise-How to be beloved and useful-Study of books, versus the study of human nature-Something had and something wanting at Waialua—A maxim gathered from observationManagement of cases of casuistry-A common weakness commented upon-Difference of behaviour between sentimental and genuine sorrow-The acting of a fine mind when sin or griefstricken, and that of a coarse mind-The Hawaiian infirmity illustrated by a fact-The pea-hen everywhere-Native volubility and destitution of shame-Charities of the Waialua church-A manual labour school-How established and why abandoned-We journey to Ewa-A successful experiment at self-support-Remarkable proof of disinterestedness-Progress reported-Honour to whom honour is due-Fact and cause of the nation's decay-Alarming statistics-Report of a committee on moral reform-Responsibility of foreigners who have fed the national vice-Moral strength of the government now and formerly Suppression of vice the duty of magistrates-Plea of virtue and humanity-Sophisms of the selfish and impure. THE future of nations and of individuals is absolutely known to Omniscience only. The issues and destinies of ages to come, God alone can explore, on whom they depend. A guess beyond the present, or a rational judgment of the future by the past, is all that the wisest of uninspired men can venture. There are thinking men of the race now dominant in the world, who judge that all the nations of the earth descended from Shem, (including the Indians of North and South America, the races of Oceanica, and the kingdoms of the East,) have already reached that point of degradation or of fixedness observed by ethnologists, from which neither individuals nor nations are disposed of themselves to rise, and from which the Most High is seldom disposed to raise them. They are to be irrecoverably absorbed,—according to the prophecy, God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem-in the posterity of that son of Noah to whom Europe was given. Be it that many of them as individuals may be converted and saved, they cannot survive much longer as nations. The decree has gone out against them-prophecy must be fulfilled. Embracing Christianity will not save them from decay, though it may save their souls. They have sunk too low, and have become diseased too mortally, to be raised and live. Repentance comes too late for their national salvation, as to a man who has ruined his constitution by excess, past the sanative reach of reform. The process of extermination before the favoured posterity of Japheth, is too far under way, and too surely predetermined, to be arrested now. Now, how much soever of theoretic truth and Scripture evidence such opinions may have for their basis, yet, when much dwelt upon, and constantly compared in the mind with all facts that look that way, it is hardly possible that they should not blunt the edge of appetite for missionary work, and disable the sword-arm for nervous thrusts at the powers of Pagan darkness. The mind will be naturally reasoning-My labour here is comparatively hopeless and of little account; how much better to be expending my energies for immortality upon the race of Anglo-Saxons that is to live and inherit the earth, than upon a degraded people that are soon to die out and become extinct, and their memorial to perish with them! Such reasonings, like the notions Satan started in Paradise, when he sat "Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, The organs of her fancy, and with them forge disturb and divert the mind from its proper work; "Thence raise distempered, discontented thought, Blown up with high conceits, engendering pride." It is no more possible for a missionary, than for a clergyman in service elsewhere, to pay the debt to his profession which Lord Bacon says every professional man owes, nisi noctes atque dies in hoc studio consumat. All his days and nights must be given to studies and employments that have a steady bearing upon his great work, and tend either to enlarge his capacity, or augment and burnish his intellectual armour, or to throw the light of his individual reason and experience upon the duties of his profession, for the benefit of others. It is not, indeed, for one man to say to another how much or how little he may diverge from his main pursuit, or whether literary diversions be compatible or not with the duties of a missionary. We can only lay down the general principle, that both ministerial and missionary work demands the entire energies of those who are dedicated thereto. In order to be at all eminent or successful, experience has proved that the man must be totus in illis. "Give thyself wholly to them-Make full proof of thy ministry-Do all the work of an Evangelist"—is the charge of the Apostle. To divide the strength is to weaken it, and one's profession inevitably suffers. Examination of the yearly minutes of the Hawaiian Mission, and a bird's-eye view of the business they lay out for themselves, every one or two years at general meeting, as well as the personal inspection of them at their several stations, would satisfy any one that there is no chance in Hawaii-nei for laziness. There is work enough, both professional and miscellaneous, to keep them all busy; and there is full exercise, in one way or another, for all gifts and talents, inventive, administrative, executive; teaching, preaching, organizing, building, improving in every way. Some of the missionaries excel in preaching, and some in teaching; others, again, in translating and book-making; and others in devising and constructing new ways and means of operation upon the native mind, whereby it shall develop and educate itself. Some pastors, by reason of their impulsive, sanguine temperaments, strong faith, and fervent zeal, are eager to introduce candidates early into the Christian ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Others, again, may have shown an excessive carefulness in admitting to the Church, an extreme of scepticism on the subject of native piety, and the important lack in their intercourse with Hawaiians, of the affable temper of Milton's "Sociable spirit Raphael, that deigned To travel with Tobias, and secured His marriage with the seven-times wedded maid." We have put it down as a maxim that no man can be beloved or popular, as a missionary or a man, in Hawaiinei, who is not either from natural disposition, or in default of that, from purpose and policy, particularly patient, condescending, and social in his intercourse with the people. Any one that cannot be so, or who will not make up his mind to exercise much self-denial, and spend considerable of his time in talking with the natives, receiving calls, and listening to their manaos (thoughts), had better not come. There The most beloved and best missionaries are the most easy and gracious in their dealings with the natives. You cannot be cold and reserved, or keep them at a distance, without keeping away their confidence, and love. must be much gentleness, a kind, obliging temper, and a considerable degree of familiarity allowed, or their regard for you will be slight, and your influence over them inconsiderable. It is much more agreeable to nature to commune in one's study with books, or to be enjoying the society of family and friends, than waiting upon ignorant though well-meaning Kanakas, that can add nothing to one's intellectual stores, patiently unravelling their hihias (moral entanglements), listening to the tale of their corruptions, or sitting in judgment upon their strifes. But all this must be willingly submitted to if a man will gain influence, and will not quite forego the fruit of his labours. There must be a mutual love and confidence begotten between pastor and people by these offices, or the good that can be done is almost nothing. There is one part of the pastor's discipline at Waialua |