ed by recent accounts,
especially that of the Missionary Voyage already noticed.--E.]

It did not appear to us that these people are, in any instance, guilty
of idolatry; at least they do not worship any thing that is the work of
their hands, nor any visible part of the creation. This island indeed,
and the rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron, and
others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and
concerning which they have some superstitious notions with respect to
good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and robin-red-breast,
giving them the name of _Eatua_, and by no means killing or molesting
them; yet they never address a petition to them, or approach them with
any act of adoration.[33]

[Footnote 33: The account now given of the religion of the Otaheitans is
imperfect in point of information; and it must be held erroneous as to
principle, by all who chuse to derive their knowledge on the subject of
man's relation to his Maker, from the sacred Scriptures alone. The
imperfections were the consequence of the very limited acquaintance with
these islanders, which existed at the time, and may be readily filled up
on the authority of subsequent observers. As to the erroneousness of
principle, it may suffice for the enlightened reader to remind him, that
as the Supreme Being himself is the only object of worship, so every
other one that is worshipped in place of him, whether made by the hands
of men, or found made by nature, or conceived to exist, is virtually and
essentially an idol. It follows from this, that idolatry is much more
prevalent than is usually imagined, and is by no means confined to
nations in a barbarous or semi-barbarous state. The worshippers of
reason, or virtue, or taste, or fashion, or nature, or one's own
goodness and piety, or the spiritual entities of philosophers and
religionists, are as truly idolaters as the worshippers of the grand
lama in Thibet, or the economical sect in Lapland, who content
themselves with the largest stone they can find. Mr Hume, who has been
at such pains to enquire into the natural history of religion, is most
unnecessarily cautious as to the qualifying of one of his most important
assertions on the subject of the prevalence of idolaters. "The savage
tribes of America, Africa, and Asia," says he, "are all idolaters. Not a
single exception to this rule. Insomuch, that, were a traveller to
transport himself into any unknown reg