404 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
scenes and society by which the writers are surrounded, 
are foreign; and next to the feeling of curiosity, the 
greatest interest they excite, arises from the connexion 
with those for whose welfare every concern is felt. Very 
different are the effects of a letter/rom home, to one in 
a distant land. Every circumstance connected with it 
awakens emotion; even the name of the place whence it 
is dated, recalls a thousand associations of by-gone days. 
We seem to hear again the familiar voice, and involun¬ 
tarily feel as if we had mingled once more with the circle 
which friendship and attachment had often drawn round 
the domestic hearth; and while perusing letters from 
home, we have felt the force of the poet’s exclamation. 
How fleet is a glance of the mind ! 
Next to the enjoyment of the Divine favour, letters 
from friends are among the sources of sweetest solace, 
and most cheering encouragement, to the sojourner in a 
foreign land. They excite a train of feeling which must 
be experienced, to be understood. They cheer the spirits 
often fainting under the effects of an insalubrious clime, 
the silent prostration of debilitating sickness, or the 
opposition and the trials of situation. They convey to 
his mind the gratifying conviction that he is not for¬ 
gotten by those in whose enjoyments and pursuits he 
once participated. 
This consideration not only revives his spirit, but im¬ 
parts a fresh impetus to his movements, and adds new 
energy to all his efforts. Letters from those abroad 
are gratifying to friends at home; and if so, to those who 
participate the joys of sincere, enlightened, and glowing 
friendship, and who are encircled by a thousand 
sources of enjoyment, how much more welcome must 
they be to the distant, and often lonely absentee, who. 
