168 REFLECTIONS. 
sciences would soon have taken root, the in- 
tellect of the people would have expanded, 
and a just estimation of all that is .good, 
beautiful, and eternally true, would have re- 
fined their manners and ennobled their hearts. 
Europe would soon have admired, perhaps 
have envied Tahaiti: but the religion taught 
by the Missionaries is not true Christianity, 
though it may possibly comprehend some of 
its doctrines, but half understood even by 
the teachers themselves. That it was establish- 
ed by force, is of itself an evidence against its 
Christian principle. A religion which consists 
in the eternal repetition of prescribed prayers, 
which forbids every innocent pleasure, and 
cramps or annihilates every mental power, is 
a libel on the Divine Founder of Christianity, 
the benign Friend of human-kind. It is true, 
that the religion of the Missionaries has, with 
a great deal of evil, effected some good. It 
has abolished heathen superstitions, and an 
irrational worship, but it has introduced new 
errors in their stead. It has restrained the 
vices of theft and incontinence, but it has 
given birth to bigotry, hypocrisy, and a ha- 
