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Noy. ' l5f i*5jO. . tttie %t&\ttt. 1093
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. An Introductory Addr...
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How Mkn Ohskuvk.— Man i« horn an observi...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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C.Ik10vuk On Tlllfl Sandwich Ihi.Am>^- ^...
- ^~~ C 7 at hey would be in a note book . We are S £ ed to a fatiguing amount of moral reflection , * ot of the most suggestive , not of the newest j we i „> also " something too much" of Missionary Kui and the -money value of Christianity'M-the iL of the Missionary and the Commercial Yankee yb ^ tog ^ Vj s When he tells us " w Christianity has changed m the course of one Generation a warlike , ferocious , infanticide race , flrrificinff each other to their gods , into a race now !„ remarkably peaceful and gentle , that property and human life is safer among them than on any other part of the globe , he speaks like a minister of the Gospel ; but yhen he launches out
intosta-^ tistical and rhetorical enthusiasm m favour of the « mOney value of Christianity , " and winds up with the declaration " that if men wish to invest their money where it will yield a dividend of eighteen hundred per cent ., they had better put it into the treasury of the missions "—then the Yankee disagreeably predominates . Besides the Missionary advocate , we see here the traveller and observer ; he gives us descriptions of natural productions , observations , and disquisisitions on volcanoes and coral reefs , and tables exports . The whole is a confused mass , but the details have interest . From Life in the Sandwich Islands we extract a passage or two for out
philological friends : — " The Hawaiians were particularly fond of annexing wai , water , if possible , in the names of places . It is like the Eastern word wadi , water , that occurs so often in the natnes of places in Arabia , as Wadi Mousa , Wadi Seder , S ? c . Undoubtedly it is the same word , with the mere ellipsis , for euphony s sake , of the consonant a * . " And it might be remarked in passing , that not a few of such verbal analogies go far towards proving the original identity of the languages of Polynesia and the East . Almost all valleys in Hawaii-nei , and
places that have the precious boon of water , are called Wai With some descriptive epithet , as Waiohinu , sparkling water ; Waialua , two waters , or double water ; Kawaihae , broken waters , & c . . . . Some of the idioms are very peculiar and curious . There is no auxiliary verb to be / nor any word to express the abstract idea of being or existence . Good idiomatic Hawaiian is , therefore , in short sentences , or clauses thereof , and the same word may be a noun or a verb , according to the sense to be expressed ,
without change . This , and the destitution of general terms , while specific ones are numerous , constitutes a state of the language favourable to the art of poetry . " There are no variations in nouns for case , number , or person ; but the mood and tenses of verbs are pretty clearly distinguished by simple prefixes and suffixes . The mode of conjugating verbs , the existence of a causative form , and the derivation of words from roots of two syllables , are thought to indicate a resemblance and cognate origin with the Hebrew and
other Oriental tongues . " The use of the particle ' no' in the way of aihrmation or affirmative emp hasis , like ' yes indeed , ' ' no indeed , ' is very peculiar , as being so the reverse of all the languages of Europe , where it is negative . Tell an Hawaiian to stop or leave off anything he is doing , as , ua oki , ua oki pela , and he answers , I stop indeed , oki au no , or , stop no ! " Ask a man a question to which he does not know or wish to give the answer—as , What did you do it for ?—and the reply commonly heard will be , — He aha la ! what indeed ! Ask a native about the
climate of a place—as , whether it is rainy or notmid he will think he gives you a very wise answer , though it is a most amusing and unsatisfactory one to the anker : Ina ua , ua no , If or when it rains , it rains ; Ina aole , aloe no ; If not , no indeed ; Ina ua pinepine , piuopine no ; If it rain often , often indeed it rains ; A i hiki i ka manawa ua , ua no , And when the raintime has come , there is rain indeed ! " So , when you ask a native , sometimes , where he is going , he will answer you very respectfully , E hole ttu makahi E hele ai , I am going where I ' m going , or > vhat amounts to the English expres 8 ion > without any <> f its impudence , I am following rny nose ! Ask a man whom you are employing what shall ho dono in ftny exigency , and ho generally answers , Eia no ia oe , ¦ That's with you , that ' s for you to Bay . for its
" There is one Hawaiian word which , singular convenience and expressiveness , I would be glad }\> get domesticated into Eng lish , and that isTilikia . ' They uho it to signify any strait , or difficulty , or perplexity a man is brought into by acoident or HicknoHS , or the mismanagement or ill conduct of others . " In the speech of the Xing at the forced cession of the Inlands to Paulut , it occurs vory aptly . ' Hoar y « - ! I make know to you that 1 am in perplexity ( pilikia ) , by reason of ditficultits into which I Irtive been brought without cause ; therefore 1 have g iven « way the life of our land . Hear ye ! But my will over you , my people , and your privileges will contmue , lor I have hope that the life- of the land will bo sectored when my conduct is juntiilod . ' " This word pilikia would present no difliculty to
an expert derivator : what , he would say , can be more obvious than that our pickle is a corruption of this Hawaiian word ? "A pretty pickle" being currently used for an " awkward perplexity . " Oh , these derivators !
HOPE . " The compound word for hope is beautifully expressive ; it is manaolana , or the swimming thoughtiaith floating and keeping its head aloft above water , when all the waves and billows are going over onea strikingly beautifnl definition of hope , worthy to be set down along with the answer which a deaf and dumb person wrote with his pencil , in reply to the question , What was his idea of forgiveness ? ' It is the odour which flowers yield when trampled on . ' " From the same volume We extract a passage that will interest all naturalists : ~
THEORT OF COEAIi FORMATIONS . " While on the subject of corals , it is in place to mention an inference which Williams makes in his Missionary Enterprises , in regard to the formation of corals , from the fact of their being carbonate of lime always in solution with salt water . His remarks are , that , * As corals are carbonate of lime , and as they are found to exist only in warm climates , where , by the process of evaporation , there is abundance of materials supplied for these insects to build with , instead Of secreting the substance , or producing it in any other way , they are merely the wonderful architects which nature employs to mould and fashion the material into the various and beautiful forms which
the God of nature designed it should assume . In the Museum at Liverpool , among the specimens ©? coral , there is a branching piece of coral which is a caloareous crystal , formed in the evaporating-house of the saltworks of the King of Prussia . ' " So , in regard to sea-shells , instead of saying that the animals secrete the calcareous coverings which they inhabit , he thinks that they emit or secrete a gluten , to which the calcareous particles adhere , and thus form the shell . Let there be a chemical precipitation of the minute calcareous particles floating in sea-water by any means , and there might be formed a reef ; agreeably to the experiment , in which the passing of a stream of electric fluid through water having calcareous and silicious particles in solution ,
produces stones . " The lightning of tropical regions , and the electric fluid engendered by sub-marine and other volcanoes which abound in the South Seas , may thus produce an effect adequate to the formation of those wonderful .. and invaluable structures . This is a much more rational theory to account for the existence of the immense coral reefs and coral islands of the Pacific , than that alluded to above , which supposes them Avholly the work of saxigenous polypes or lithophytes .
" The so-called saxigenous , or rock-making , polype builds upon the reefs , and cements his singular treeimitating structures to them ; but this agency , we cannot but think , is altogether inadequate to the formation of immense islands . The more solid and compact texture of the coral rock , often stratified , would also lead one to ascribe to it a different origin from the corals , whose exact and beautiful cellular structure evinces an animal agency as plainly as the honeycomb of a bee-hive .
" It is , therefore , quite unnecessary to suppose the calcareous coral rocks either secreted by insects , or the exuviee of the insects , or the dead bodies of the insects themselves ; but they are simply carbonate of lime precipitated from the sea-water which holds its particles in solution , mixed and cemented together with broken shells and pieces of corals . The coral , properly so called ( that which is to be seen in museums and cabinets ) , is what is built upon this rock as a foundation , by the coral insect . " These observations made on corals as seen in the beds where they grow at the Sandwich Islands , and recorded on the spot , have induced me to compare the results thua obtained with what has been written on this subject by certain late authors . Wh
+ 9 -V _ fern * -- * - * W Vfe . . " In a recent article from the North lirttish Review , by Sir David Brewater , he says : — Our readers , no doubt , are aware that the coral rocks which form islands and reefs hundreds of miles in extent , are built by small animals called polypus , that secrete from the lower portion of their body a large quantity of carbonate of lime ; which , when diffused around the body , and deposited between the folds of ita abdominal coats , constitutes a cell , or polypidom , or polypary , into the hollow of which the animal can retire . The solid thus formed is called a coral , which represents exactly the animal itself .
" ' These utony cells are HometimrH single and cupped , sometimes ramifying like a tree , and sometimes grouped like a cauliflower , or imitating the human brain . The calcareous cells which they build remain iixed to the rock in which they began their labours after the animalfl themselves are dead . Anew set of workmen take their places , and add another story to the rising edifice . The same process goes on from generation to generation , until the wall reached the surface- of the ouean , whero it necessarily terminates .
" « These industrious labourers act as scavengers of the lowest class ; perpetually employed in cleansing the waters of the sea from impurities which escape even the smallest Crustacea ; in the same manner as the insect tribes , in their various stages , are destined to find their food by devouring impurities caused by dead animals and vegetable matter in the land . " Were we to unite into one mass the immense coral reefs , three hundred miles long , and the numberless coral islands , some of which are forty and
fifty miles in diameter ; and if we add to this all the coralline limestone , and the other formations , whether calcareous or silicious , that are the works of insect labour , we should have an accumulation of solid matter which would compose a planet or a satelliteat least one of the smaller planets , between Mars and Jupiter . And if such a planet could be so constructed , may we not conceive that the solid materials of a whole system of worlds might have been formed by the tiny , but long-continued labours of beings that are invisible ?'
" Now here is a mixture of fancy and fact , which a single personal inspection of a coral reef by the learned theorizer would have very considerably modified . He would become satisfied , I think , that the great reef itself , as it appears at the Sandwich Islands , so far from being the work of insect labour alone , is the basis which Nature herself lays , in the way before referred to , by the precipitation of carbonate of lime , through electrical agency , from seawater , for the coral insect to build upon and garnish with his beautiful structures . This basis , it is true , is increased from time to time by the decay of the coral fabrios , but it is never reared by thein alone from the depths of the sea . "
Noy. ' L5f I*5jo. . Tttie %T&\Ttt. 1093
Noy . ' l 5 f i * 5 jO . . tttie % t &\ ttt . 1093
Books On Our Table. An Introductory Addr...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . An Introductory Address , delivered at King ' s College , London , October 1 , 1891 . By William Bowman , Professor of Physiology . 3 . W . Parker and Son . It is difficult to avoid commonplace in such addresses , and not possible , perhaps , to say much that is new ; with this reservation we may recommend Professor Bowman ' s Address as an excellent one , and as presenting thoughts for the Medical Student worthy his meditation . Christian Iconography ; or , the History of Christian Art in the Middle Ages . By Al . Didron . Translated from the French by 15 . J . Milliugton . Vol . 1 . ( Bohn ' e Illustrated Library . ) y B h . G . liohn . A curious and valuable work . On its completion we shall notice it at some length ; meanwhile , we commend it to our readers . The Ethnolony of the Britisli Colonies and Dependencies . By R . G . Latham , M . D . Van Voorst . This volume Is an expansion of six lectures Dr . Latham delivered at the Koyal Institution , Manchester . It contains a large mass of ethnological facts ; but it looks more like notes for a work than a work , and is somewhat drier than it might have been . French Extracts for Beginners . By Felician Wolski , Master of the Foreign Language Department in High School , Glasgow . Third JSdition enlarged . Oliver and JJoyd . This book will be found useful . It consists of short and pleasant extracts from the whole range of French Literature , with the liaisons marked ( an excellent plan ) as thus , "j ' ai lu dans-uno relation , " showing that the s should be sounded before the u ( as dan sune relation )' , and a vocabulary is added for the assistance of the learner .
Skctc / te . i of European Capital * . By William Ware , M . D . Literature and Lije : Lectures by Edwin V . Whipple . John Chapman . The two first specimens of Chapman ' s Library for tho People , an elegant shilling volume series issued for the Hail . The " Sketches" are by a clever man , and will wile away a pleasant hour , without leaving any very distinct impression behind . As for Mr . Whipple ' fl Literature and Lifet the Lectures belong to the tedious Emersonianism of American Literature , which battle our efforts to road on—we fuirly broke down in the second lecture , and no sense of duty has been strong enough to urge us to mount tho breach again . A History and Description o / Modern Wines . By Cyrus Uodding . " Third Kdition , with Additions and Corrections . II . (; . Bonn .
Mr . 1 John ' s Illustrated Library this montli pre « ents uh with Cyrus Redding ' s popular History of Modern Wines : tho illustrations being inferior to those usually given in this Heries . Mr . Redding appears to have made considerable additions to this edition , and it ifl now a pleasant and reliable book .
How Mkn Ohskuvk.— Man I« Horn An Observi...
How Mkn Ohskuvk . — Man i « horn an observing animal , and his powers , it would appear , arc at once excited into action by the beautiful creation which ih fiiicad around , and the wonderful influences by which its beauty , its life , and order are fluatained . Hut wo do not find him at first asking Nature to reveal her mvHteries ; ho invests her with a robo of cloudtt , and , surveying the mirage of his own imagination shadowed upon the mist , he worship !! the ideality , nnd leave * tho bright reality uunoughfc—British Quarterly ltovicv ? , No . 2 « .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15111851/page/17/
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