PREFATORY LETTER. lxxxi 



fruits of this holy triumph have fallen short of expectation, 

 and have not been allowed to ripen, that misfortune was not 

 the fault either of the Missionaries or the Natives; but was 

 the fault of stronger men who, without a plea of law or jus- 

 tice, invaded and beat down the inhabitants by force of arms, 

 and drove away their Christian teachers. Wisdom is ap- 

 proved of her children ; 'and from this good band of Christian 

 labourers— once so much mocked and scorned by writers of 

 great power and skill — have arisen works we may with truth 

 call philosophical; which have advanced the cause of physical 

 science ; cast a good light upon the history of a very interesting 

 section of the human family ; and added a goodly chapter to 

 the religious literature of the present day. 



Just in the same narrow, and I am sorry to say un- 

 christian spirit, some of the most popular writers of this 

 time — men who have delighted us by their prolific works of 

 fiction, and done some service to the cause of humanity and 

 justice, national taste, social freedom, and brotherly love — 

 have thought fit to blight their laurels by frequent and lusty 

 scofftngs at honest acts of public zeal for the instruction of the 

 poor natives of heathendom. They write as if every man must 

 be a brain heated fanatic who stands up on a public platform 

 to plead for his fellow-creatures in distant lands; and as if 

 every woman, who goes to listen to him and desires to help 

 him, must needs be a simple dreamer, a slattern, a sorry house- 

 wife, and a bad mother. Such gross caricatures, if they prove 

 nothing else, are a proof of vulgar taste, and may help to do 

 some mischief: but they partly carry with them their own 

 antidote; for they are nauseously false and ridiculously untrue 

 to nature. Who ever doubted that there are, and ever will 

 be, great follies even among good men? There will be found 

 at all times men who talk of goodness, and make a show of 

 it, without loving it for its own sake. Such men are the 

 chaff which the blast of ridicule might, perhaps, winnow 

 from the corn. But our Bible tells us not to be in too great 



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