H 



U 



M 



A 



N 



S 



P 



E 



C 



I 



E 



S. 



•^49 



forrow, when I perceived that our own civilized countries, not- princi- 

 ples O F- 



withftanding the numberlefs improvements they had received from gociE- 

 the cftabliihment of excellent laws, and the cultivation of arts ties. 



•m 



and fciences ; notwithftanding the frequent occalions of ilill 



L 



M 

 ■. 



greater improvement, and the glorious encouragement to virtue 

 and morality, were far outdone in real goodnefs and benevolence 



I- 



by a fet of innocent people,, fo much our inferiors in many other 

 refpeds ; and I could not help repeatedly wifhing, that our civilized 

 Europeans might add to their many advantages, that innocence 



of heart and genuine fimplicity of manners, that fpirit of bene 



volence, and real goodnefs, which thefe my new acquired friends 



^ 



fo eminently poiTelTed, 



only have the feveral.gpod 



The Taheiteans as individual 



not 



qualities above mentioned, of a domeflic kind, but they are like- 

 wife fenfible of the great advantages of a focial or civil union : 

 and as far as our imperfe(^ knowledge of their language; our fliort 

 flay amongft them, and the defultory inftrudion of Maheine and 

 Q-Mdi would permit, I have reafons to think, that the beginning 

 of their civil fociety is founded on paternal authority, and is of the 

 patriarchal kind. The hufbmd and the wife of his bofom, whom 

 love unites- by the filken ties of m^atrimony, form the firft fociety. 

 This union is, in thefe happy regions, firft founded on the call of 



9 



nature, in mutual afTiflance, and the fweet hopes of feeing them- 



