nd coast,
which seems to say, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no
farther," the low-minded heathen is merely thinking of the
shellfish on the shore. As he looks up to the everlasting
mountains, girt with clouds and capped with snow, he
betrays no emotion. As he climbs a towering cliff, looks
down a yawning precipice, or abroad upon a forest of deep
ravines, immense rocks, and spiral mountains thrown
together in the utmost wildness and confusion by the might
of God's volcanoes, he is only thinking of some roots in
the wilderness that may be good for food.

There is hardly a poem in this volume that does not show the
utter falsity of this view. The writer of the words quoted
above, now in his grave for more than sixty years, was a man
for whose purity and moral character one must entertain the
highest esteem. He enjoyed the very best opportunity to study
the minds of the "heathen" about him, to discern their
[Page 263] thoughts, to learn at first hand their emotions toward the
natural world, whether of admiration, awe, reverence, or
whether their attitude was that of blank indifference and
absorption in selfish things. But he utterly failed to
penetrate the mystery, the "truth and poetry," of the
Hawaiian mind and heart. Was it because he was tied to a
false theology and a false theory of human nature? We are not
called upon to answer this question. Let others say what was
wrong in his standpoint. The object of this book is not
controversial; but when a palpable injustice has been done,
and is persisted in by people of the purest motives, as to
the thoughts, emotions, and mental operations of the
"savage," and as to the finer workings within that constitute
the furniture and sanctuary of heart and soul, it is
imperative to correct so grave a mistake; and we may be sure
that he whose words have just been quoted, were he living
today, would acknowledge his error.

Though it is not the purpose of these pages to set forth in
order a treatise on the human nature of the "savage," or to
make unneeded apology for the primiti