THE GREAT OCEAN. 397 



order lias proceeded, as a complete whole, from 

 one spirit. Such an edifice is often executed by 

 history, which receives from the hand of chance 

 the materials for its construction : and do we not 

 even see the weak man turn back from a purely 

 spiritual religion to polytheism, and place his vain 

 earthly confidence on the material object, the block 

 or the stone ? Is it not easier to ourselves, as to 

 other nations of the world, to beheve in witchcraft, 

 lying, and vain words, than to adhere to the spirit ? 



The disparity of classes, which is so deeply rooted 

 among the islanders of the South Sea, the particu- 

 lar sanctity of some persons and families, who are 

 independent of fortune and civil power, involun- 

 tarily remind us of India. The objection that the 

 several casts of India are devoted to particular pro- 

 fessions, modes of life, &c. is untenable. Such 

 distinction cannot take place on these islands. 



The voluntary death of the wife at the funeral 

 of the husband in the Fije islands, and the similar 

 custom in the family of the Tocitonga, in Tonga, 

 likewise refers to India.* 



If now the question is started, how, and at what 

 time, an originally Asiatic people has dispersed 

 itself over the most remote islands of the Great 

 Ocean, contrary to the course of the wind, bring- 

 ing with it its domestic animals and useful plants ; 

 how the different tribes, in their separation from 



* Mariner's Tonga, vol. i. p. 330. 



