lightful; shall we, because imperfection is the indelible character of every worldly advantage, give way to melancholy and sorrow, or suffer gloomy discontent to suppress and render vain every motive to gratitude and joy? Forbid it, Reason-forbid it, Religion. • Those to whom Providence has granted a large share of the good things of life, should cultivate a sense of their real value, and survey with humble gratitude the difference which God has made between them and others, to whom these blessings are denied; while by affability and benevolence they should endeavour to lessen the inequality. Worldly prosperity, though it cannot of itself confer solid happiness, may yet be the means of greatly increasing partial and relative bliss. Though it do not constitute that permanent good which shall follow us beyond the grave, yet it is of high value, it tends to render our present existence comfortable and desirable. as • Those from whom Providence has withheld worldly advantages, or to whom they have been but sparingly dispensed, may lawfully endeavour to acquire them; may by honest industry labour to improve their condition, and to render the future path of life more pleasing than that through which they have already passed. Nay, this is an essential part of our duty-we ought not to neglect the acquisition of any good, except when it is incompatible with a greater good; nor ought we to endure any evil which we can possibly avoid, unless it be the sole means of preventing a greater evil, or of acquiring a greater good. Self-love, therefore, which within certain limits, is a lawful, because a natural passion, should teach us to exert all the efforts of honest industry for the acquisition of temporal prosperity, and of whatever may improve the happiness of our lives. • The love of our neighbour also, which we are commanded to regulate by the love of ourselves, is another motive to engage us to this duty, and should prompt us to avail ourselves of every innocent method of acquiring worldly prosperity. The more we are blessed with wealth, the better are we able to relieve the indigent: the more we are elevated in rank, the better are we able to succour the oppressed: the more learning and knowledge we have acquired, the better are we qualified to inculcate the duties of religion--to display the beauties and advantages of virtue. • From this view of the futility of our expectations of complete happiness in this world, we should learn to hear with patience the inconveniencies of our present condition, which no alteration of circumstances here can entirely remove. Many render themselves insensible to present advantages from the desire of greater. The eager anxiety with which they long after new acquisitions, prevents them from enjoying what they actually possess. Their intense desire of rising to a more elevated station of life, disqualifies them from relishing the sweets of that which is allotted to them. But from the view here exhibited of the vanity of every earthly wish, you may learn the folly of overlooking present happiness, in the idle hope that some future period of life will afford you more complete satisfaction; thus bartering the enjoyment of actual good, for the empty shadow of vain expectation. X 2 • Hence • Hence also permit me to exhort you to fix your views and hopes on the felicity of another and better state, and to seek that good from eternity which you cannot reap from time. For what complete happiness can you expect from this life, if the future is to resemble the past if, in the years that remain, you are to experience the same disappointments, the same mixture of evil with its boasted good, which you have so often weighed in the balance and found wanting. • To conclude, as year after year passes away, and experience convinces us more and more of the imperfection of all earthly felicity; let this remind us that this world is only a state of trial and preparation for a better. Hence let us cultivate resignation and gratitude to that God, who has set before us the prospect of more perfect happiness; who, by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, has begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens. Of this let us endeavour to render ourselves less unworthy, by setting our affections more and more on things above. Amidst all the disappointments and sorrows, which await us in the cloudy and uncertain scene of this life, let us console ourselves with the expectation of a brighter and more glorious state, where no fallacious hope shall ensnare, no smiling appearances shall betray, no insidious joy shall sting; but happiness perfect in its kind shall be the reward and companion of virtue; where we shall be continually improving in the latter, and increasing the former, through the infinite ages of eternal duration." It gave us pleasure, in reading these sermons, to observe that most of the author's texts are taken from the New Testament; -the Christian's special code. On the whole, we recommend these discourses to the perusal of all denominations of Christians; with the greater confidence, because Christians of every denomination will find much in them to admire, and very little (we believe) to clash with their respective creeds. : ART. VII. M. de la Pérouse's Voyage round the World. Article continued from the APPENDIX to Review, Vol. XXVI. (published October 1st, 1798). E now resume our account of the narrative of M. de la WPerouses the continuation of which was intended for the last month: but an accident intervened which prevented its insertion. On leaving the coast of Chili, the voyagers steered for Easter Island; where they anchored April 9th, 1786. Their remarks, during the very short time of their stay at this island, differ in some particulars from the accounts given by Captain Cook.They estimate the number of inhabitants at 2000. The num ber : ber of females seen in each of the voyages was small in proportion to the number of the males. - M. de la Pérouse expresses himself dissatisfied with the drawing made of the monuments at Easter Island by Mr. Hodges (who accompanied Capt. Cook); which, he says, was a very imperfect representation of what they (the French) saw: but it is to be observed that M. de la P. was here only a single day, and it is very probable that Mr. Hodges might have designed from originals never seen by the French officer, as numbers of them were found in different parts of the island. Goats, sheep, and hogs, with the seeds of orange, lemon, and cotton trees, of maize, and of other plants which M. de la Pérouse thought likely to flourish in the island, he gave to the natives. From Easter Island, the voyagers sailed for the Sandwich Islands; and though they pursued a track not before frequented, for a distance of nearly 2000 leagues, no new land was discovered. In this passage, they caught, almost every day during six weeks, as many Bonetas as furnished a complete allowance for the ships' companies; and, which was most remarkable, the same shoal of fish had followed the ships for 1500 leagues; several that had been wounded by harpoons retained a mark on their backs which rendered it impossible to mistake them.' These fish did not quit them till they anchored at the Sandwich Islands; and M. de la Pérouse conjectures that, but for this stoppage, they would have accompanied him till they came to a temperature which they could not bear. An assertion of the French editor, in this part of the work, demands some notice. M. de la Pérouse having mentioned the death of Captain Cook, M. Milet Mureau says, in a note, 'it is incontestibly proved that the English commenced hostilities.' We do not wish to enter into, nor to encourage, any discussion on this subject: but we think it extraordinary that the following fact should be adduced by M. Mureau in support of such a charge: 'before the commission of any other crime than that of stealing the boat, two guns had been fired upon two great canoes which endeavoured to make their escape.' This is, at least, allowing that the theft of the boat preceded the firing of the guns. The French frigates remained only 48 hours at these islands; from which, nevertheless, they procured considerable refreshments. Two English ships, commanded by Captains Portlock and Dixon, were at this very time among the islands: but they were not seen by M. de la Pérouse, nor did he hear of any other ships being there. On the 23d of June, they got sight of the American coast, in the neighbourhood of Mount St. Elias; and on the 3d of July they anchored in a harbour to which M. de la P. gave the name of Port des Français, in latitude 58° 37′ N. and longitude 139° 50. W. We have the following description of the interior of this harbour: • To form a conception of it, let us suppose a bason of water of a depth in the middle that could not be fathomed, bordered by peaked mountains, of an excessive height, covered with snow, without a blade of grass upon this immense collection of rocks condemned by nature to perpetual sterility. I never saw a breath of air ruffle the surface of this water; it is never troubled but by the fall of enormous pieces of ice which continually detach themselves from five different glaciers, and which in falling make a noise that resounds far in the mountains. The air is in this place so very calm, and the silence so profound, that the mere voice of a man may be heard half a league off, as well as the noise of some sea birds which lay their eggs in the cavities of these rocks.' This picture reminds us of the celebrated description given of the solemnity of silence, in Congreve's Mourning Bride: "All is hush'd and still as death- On an island in this harbour, the French erected a tent for an observatory. Immediately on their arrival, the ships had been surrounded by the canoes of the natives, whom M. de la Pérouse describes as the most complete thieves, 'possessed of an activity and obstinacy capable of executing the longest and most difficult projects, which his lenity towards them much encouraged. • If (says he) we did not applaud the robber, we at least reclaimed nothing, in order to avoid every occasion of quarrel. • I am very certain they never thought of inspiring us with sentiments of fear, but I have been convinced by their conduct, they imagined our patience to be inexhaustible: they soon compelled me to take away the settlement I had made upon the island; they disembarked there in the night from the side of the coast; they traversed a very thick wood, which was totally impervious to the day, and gliding upon their bellies like adders, almost without stirring a leaf, they contrived, in spite of our sentinels, to carry off some of our effects.' In an excursion designed for the examination of the shores o the harbour, M. de Langle and two other gentlemen attempted If to ascend one of the glaciers: but, after having with great labour and difficulty travelled two leagues, they found it impracticable to advance farther. On the day after this excursion, the chief of a village, who had before visited them, came on board, better attended and much more dressed than usual, and made a proposal to sell them the island on which the observatory had been placed. We had no proof,' says M. de la Pérouse, 'that this chief was the real proprietor, but as a great many Indians were witnesses to the bargain, I had a right to conclude that they gave their sanction to it. I gave him several ells of red cloth, hatchets, &c. and made presents to all his suite.' The bargain being thus concluded, M. de la P. took posession of the island with the customary formalities. The circumstances under which he acted deserve commendation, for the respect shewn by him to the rights of the natives: but on this formal method of taking possession of lands, as well as on the rights of first discoverers, the following reflections occur to us. land be unoccupied, and there exist no tokens of the intention of any people to occupy it, it appears consonant to natural equity, that whosoever first takes actual possession, meaning to cultivate or make use of the land, has the best right; in full exclusion of all pretensions from those who, without design of occupancy, advance other claims, of whatever nature. It is generally intended, by the formalities of taking possession, to appropriate the right of occupancy whenever the exercise of that right may become convenient: but, to allow that such an act can entitle any nation to retain an exclusive right of keeping large tracts of country wholly useless, and locked up for ages from all mankind, would amount to an endeavour to render vain the gifts of our Creator; and would in effect, as far as regarded the human species, be equivalent to the striking off so much territory from the face of the earth. Prior discovery, without the actual and declared intention of occupancy, seems a very slender reason for opposing the establishment of factories or settlements by other nations. To this period, the navigators esteemed themselves most fortunate, in having arrived at such a distance from Europe with the companies of both ships in perfect health, and without having suffered any accident:--but a misfortune now awaited them, which, besides the immediate grief and distress that it occasioned, must have thrown a gloom over all the succeeding part of the voyage. A plan of the harbour had been made by Messrs. de Monneron and Bernizet, which wanted the soundings to render it complete. For this purpose, three boats were sent under the command of M. d'Escures, the first Lieutenant of the Boussole. At particular times of the tide, X 4 the |