viii 
PREFACE. 
observing its nature and tendencies, which could not be 
obtained in a more advanced state of society. 
In some respects, t)ie mythology of. Tahiti presents 
features peculiarly its own: in others it exhibits a strik¬ 
ing analogy to that of the nations of antiquity. In each, 
the light of truth occasionally gleams through a mass of 
darkness and error* t The conviction that man is the 
subject of supernatural dominion, is recognized in all, 
and the multiplied objects of divine homage, which dis¬ 
tinguished the polytheism of the ancients, marked also 
that of the rude islanders. Nor was the fabulous religion 
of the latter deficient in the mummeries of sorcery and 
witchcraft, the delusion of oracles, andcuthe infiuence of 
other varieties ..of juggling, and . oppressive spiritual 
domination. 
The South Sea Islanders appear under circumstances 
peculiarly favourable to happiness, but their idolatry 
exhibits them as removed to the farthest extreme from 
such a state. The baneful effects of their delusion was 
increased by the vast preponderance of malignant deities, 
frequently the personifications of cruelty and vice. They 
had changed the glory of God into the.image of cor-r 
ruptible things, and instead of exercising those affections 
of gratitude, complacency, and love, in the objects of 
their worship, which the living God supremely requires, 
they regarded their deities with horrific dread, and wor¬ 
shipped only with enslaving fear. , 
While the false system of Tahiti shews the distance 
to which those under its influence departed from the 
knowledge and service of the true God; it also furnishes 
additional confirmation of the fact, that polytheism, 
whether exhibited in the fascinating numbers of classic 
poetry, the splendid imagery of eastern fable, or the rude 
