123 
and observe the fetters which, in such a state, bind 
down the soul (destined to nobler aims) to the level 
of the brute creation; and to reflect on the various 
gradations through which such a being must neces¬ 
sarily pass, before it can arrive at a state of complete 
civilization, is both a curious and instructive employ¬ 
ment; and, if properly pursued, will produce the 
most beneficial effects upon the mind. 
The foregoing remarks will, we conceive, apply 
with peculiar force to the nation whose history now lies 
before us. Placed at a remote distance from polished 
society, and shut up in the bosom of their own 
island, the transactions of, probably, thousands of 
years have sunk into the abyss of oblivion, leaving 
behind them scarce a vestige of their existence, be¬ 
yond the mouldering tombs of the ancestors of the 
present generation; and the adherence of the latter 
to customs and rites that tell us they once belonged 
to, or originated from, a people with whose collateral 
history our minds have been familiar from earliest 
infancy. 
The few particulars which have reached us of the 
history of the island, prior to its discovery by the 
Portuguese in 1506, have been related in another 
part of this work. For them we are indebted, not 
to the Madegasses themselves, but to the Mahometan 
strangers who conquered the island ; and who, being 
qualified for the task by the knowledge of letters, 
have left written memorials of them. 
Madagascar was too considerable and important a 
