mythology as mere heathen superstitions. If they were
heathen, there was nothing else for them to be. But even the
heathen can claim the right to be judged by their deeds, not
by their creeds. Measured by this standard, the average
heathen would not make a bad showing in comparison with the
average denizen of Christian lands. As to beliefs, how much
more defensible were the superstitions of our own race two or
three centuries ago, or of to-day, than those of the
Hawaiians? How much less absurd and illogical were our
notions of cosmogony, of natural history; how much less
beneficent, humane, lovable the theology of the pagan
Hawaiians than of our Christian ancestors a few centuries ago
if looked at from an ethical or practical point of view. At
the worst, the Hawaiian sacrificed the enemy he took in
battle on the altar of his gods; the Christian put to death
with exquisite torture those who disagreed with him in points
of doctrine. And when it comes to morals, have not the
heathen time and again demonstrated their ability to give
lessons in self-restraint to their Christian invaders?

It is a matter of no small importance in the rating of a
people to take account of their disposition toward nature. If
there has been a failure to appreciate truly the mental
attitude of the "savage," and especially of the Polynesian
savage, the Hawaiian, toward the book of truth that was open
to him in nature, it is always in order to correct it. That
such a mistake has been made needs no further proof than the
perusal of the following passage in a book entitled "History
of the Sandwich Islands:"

To the heathen the book of nature is a sealed book. Where
the word of God is not, the works of God fail either to
excite admiration or to impart instruction. The Sandwich
Islands present some of the sublimest scenery on earth,
but to an ignorant native--to the great mass of the people
in entire heathenism--it has no meaning. As one crested
billow after another of the heaving ocean rolls in and
dashes upon the unyielding rocks of an iron-bou