probably he
will hardly venture to persist in denying the identity of race,
contended for in the present instance, when he shall observe, that, to
the proof drawn from affinity of customs, we have it in our power to add
that most unexceptionable one, drawn from affinity of language.
_Tamoloa_, we now know, is the word used at Hamoa, one of the Friendly
Islands, to signify a chief: And whoever looks into the Lettres
Edifiantes et Curieuses, will see this is the very name by which the
inhabitants of the Caroline Islands distinguish their principal men. We
have, in two preceding notes, inserted passages from Father Cantova's
account of them, where their _Tamoles_ are spoken of; and he repeats the
word at least a dozen times in the course of a few pages. But I cannot
avoid transcribing from him, the following very decisive testimony,
which renders any other quotation superfluous:--"L'autoritie du
Gouvernement se partage entre plusieurs familles nobles, dont les Chefs
s'appellent _Tamoles_. Il y a outre cela, dans chaque province, un
principale _Tamole_, auquel tous les autres sont soumis."--Lettres
Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom, xv p. 312.--D.

Mr Faber, in a prospectus to his work on Pagan Idolatry, has availed
himself of the important principle contained in this note, to infer a
common origin from the peculiar resemblance of religious opinions and
ceremonies among the various systems of paganism. His reasoning is
precisely the same as that which is used in tracing the descent of
nations, and it is very distinctly stated by him in the following
passage:--"Things, in themselves not _arbitrary_, prove nothing
whatsoever: And tribes may be alike hunters, and fishers, and bowmen,
though they have sprung from very different ancestors. But things, in
themselves _altogether arbitrary_, are acknowledged to form the basis of
a reasonable argument: And, if tribes are found to speak dialects of the
same language, and to be attached throughout to the same whimsical
customs, which are not deducible from _the nature of things_, but from
_pure caprice_ merely, _such _points of coincidence are commonly and
rationally thought to furnish a moral demonstration of the common origin
of those tribes." An objection to this reasoning instantly rises from a
denial of the notion, that any thing can be arbitrary, in which such a
limited being as man is concerned. A skilful opponent, in other words,
will move the previous question respecting man's fr