NATIVE INDOLENCE. 279 
even while we sleep; these are all we want, why 
therefore should we work V 9 
66 They knew no higher, sought no happier state. 
Had no fine instinct of superior joys. 
Why should they toil to make the earth bring forth, 
When without toil she gave them all they wanted 1 
The bread-fruit ripened, while they lay beneath 
Its shadows in luxurious indolence • 
The cocoa filled its nuts with milk and kernels; 
And while they slumbered from their heavy meals. 
In dead forgetfulness of life itself, 
The fish were spawning in unsounded depths: 
Unplanted roots were thriving under ground, 
To spread the tables of their future banquets !” 
They furnish a striking illustration of the senti¬ 
ment, that to civilize a people they must first be 
christianized ; that to attempt the former without 
the latter, is like rearing a superstructure without 
a foundation. A change in their views and feel¬ 
ings had now taken place, and, learning from the 
Scriptures, that idleness, and irregular and de¬ 
basing habits of life, were as opposed to the prin¬ 
ciples of Christianity, as to their own personal 
comfort; they were disposed to attend to the re- 
commendations of their teachers in this, as well as 
other matters. 
Industry, however, soon languishes, unless nur¬ 
tured by more powerful motives than the effects of 
abstract principles upon partially enlightened and 
ill-regulated minds. To increase their wants, or 
to make some of the comforts and decencies of 
society as desirable as the bare necessaries of life, 
appeared to us the most probable method of 
furnishing incitements to permanent industry. 
It was therefore recommended to them to erect 
for themselves more comfortable dwellings, and 
cultivate a larger quantity of ground, to meet the 
