ANALOGY TO ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY. 381 
the influence of other varieties of juggling, and 
oppressive spiritual domination. 
We are not surprised, that, to the enlightened, 
benevolent, but transient visitor, the South Sea 
Islanders appeared 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 corruptible things, and instead of 
exercising those affections of gratitude, compla¬ 
cency, and love, towards the objects of their wor¬ 
ship, which the living God supremely requires, 
they regarded their deities with horrific dread, and 
worshipped only with enslaving fear. 
While this system shews the distance to which 
those under its influence departed from the know¬ 
ledge and service of the true God ; it also fur¬ 
nishes 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 traditions of unlettered 
barbarians, is equally opposed to all just views of 
the being and perfections of the only proper object 
of religious homage and obedience; and that, 
whether invested with the gorgeous trappings of a 
cumbrous and imposing superstition, or appearing 
in the naked and repulsive deformity of rude ido¬ 
latry, it is alike unfriendly to intellectual improve¬ 
ment, moral purity, individual happiness, social 
order, and national prosperity. 
