a redress of grievances, I have been highly pleased with the solicitude which some of them have manifested to maintain the purity of their Hawaiian tongue. They were over ninety in all, a respectable, orderly body, having their President and Secretaries, and disposing of all questions in due form and order.

One of the subjects first discussed was the name by which they should call their meeting, as it was a new thing under the sun for Hawaiians. It was proposed to adopt, so far as they could, the English word Society, and call the convention The Teachers' Society, Sokieke o na Kumu.

To this some of them resolutely objected, just as we may imagine Cicero or Pericles would to an unauthorized innovation upon the classic Latin or Greek, that their language was getting barbarous; that foreigners were corrupting and running away with it; and that, if they did not take care, it would soon become a mongrel, and they should not know their own tongue.

At length, with the help of their minister, they hit upon a vernacular compound that met the case, and they called the assembly Ahahui, or The United Company.

I cannot but venture to suggest here, that a well-selected book of the best fables extant would be a great boon to the Hawaiian Nation in the present stage of its progress. It could not but interest and quicken the minds both of youth and adults; and a Reading Book might be made of them of singular utility and attractiveness, that would constitute a mine of wealth. Ha

A BOOK OF FABLES SUGGESTED.

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waiians are now familiar with almost all the animals that afford subjects of fable—the ass, the dog, the horse, goat, sheep, cattle, and swine; besides cats, rats, and mice, (those prolific fable-breeders,) domestic fowls, and birds.

It is remarked by Isaac Taylor, in his admirable work entitled "Home Education," that the distinctive characteristics of animals bear such an analogy to the varieties of human character, as has in all ages suggested the mythic form of instruction, and such as imparts to fable a degree of fixedness, or, one might say, authenticity, which hardly admits of its being disturbed.

The relative dispositions and habits of the bee and the wasp, the dog, the wolf, and the fox, and the moral picturesqueness of temper which we attribute to the ass, the magpie, the parrot, the viper, the owl, the jackal, the ape, are such as force themselves upon our notice as samples of humanity in caricature.

The first stirring of intellectuality in a people, as they emerge from barbarism, shows itself by catching at these same analogies; and what is true of a nation in its infancy, is true of childhood itself; for the mind no sooner opens than it seizes upon these very resemblances, and nourishes itself with them.

"The usage of employing the Esopian fable in the conveyance of language, must be considered as well adapted for securing several ends; inasmuch as, while it affords a sparkling entertainment, it brings together almost exclusively the descriptive portion of language,

an early familiarity with which is in itself highly important."

Backed by such authority, I cannot but commend the preparation of a collection of fables like that here indicated, to the hard-working Professors of Lahainaluna and Wailuku, and to the literature-founders of newly civilized nations generally. It would be giving to the people a grant of ideas, resources for the imagination, and a fund of mental activity, not soon to be exhausted; and it would materially aid the hitherto necessarily slow process of intellectualizing and Christianizing barbarous tribes.

We find the church at Wailuku to include eleven hundred and thirty-four members, under the pastoral care of Rev. E. W. Clark. The riding abroad necessary in performing the duties of a pastor, and change of climate, have proved partially restorative to his health, which had been much impaired by his severe sedentary labors in the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna. Although far from being robust and strong, he is able now to execute the round of a missionary's work, in which, like all other business, it is happily true in practice,

"That use doth breed a habit in a man,"

and render it comparatively easy.

His church, self-moved, has just taken a stand, and adopted a series of resolutions for the independent support of the Gospel ministry among them, that must be

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highly agreeable to the feelings of a Pastor, as indicating a manly mind and Christian spirit on the part of the people.

The movement augurs well. It is an omen of good that may justly encourage the American Board and its patron churches. It has led the way to the independent support of the Gospel ministry at the Hawaiian Islands. The following is a translated copy, furnished. me by the Pastor, of resolutions adopted at a full meeting of the church called on the previous sacramental Sabbath:

RESOLUTIONS adopted by the church included in the territory from Waihee to Kahikinui :

I. That we decline the support received by Mr. Clark from the Missionary Society of America, and that this church of Wailuku unite together to supply-all his wants in this thing and that thing, which he needs for his support.

II. That his support from America be sent to those places where the name of the Saviour has not been heard.

III. That certain persons be appointed to stir up the people to this work, and that the collections be made four times in a year.

IV. That collectors be appointed in different parts of the district, whose duty it shall be to take care of the property contributed by the church.

V. That the contributions at the monthly concert, and contributions for other definite objects, be kept distinct from what is contributed for the support of the pastor.

VI. That the names of all who assent to this proposition be attached to this engagement entered into by this church, and that it be the duty of the collectors to take down the names.

VII. In this manner shall each one give according to his abil

ity-some one dollar, some fifty cents, some twenty-five cents, some twelve and a half cents, some six cents-according as each one receives, from the highest to the lowest, so shall he give.

VIII. To carry out these resolutions is the great thing; for it is an important work, and a work by which both our country and ourselves will be benefited.

IX. That this church engage, if they are out on a journey on Saturday, that they will not travel on the Sabbath, but remain and keep the Lord's day.

It is natural to mention in the same connection the recent instance of a man (not a church member) who had been early taught at Lahainaluna, and had become, through his knowledge and skill there acquired, a man of wealth and standing. He brought lately to Mr. Clark a present of four dollars, saying it was a mea aloha, (a thing of love;) that it was to his instructions he owed his property and place, and that he was going to make such a present to Mr. Andrews also, the first teacher in the Seminary, but now disconnected with it and the American Board.

You hear it often said that there is little or no gratitude in the Hawaiian mind, and they have even no word in their language to give thanks by. Be this as it may, there are few, I think, who would not agree, in this particular instance, that this man, at least, possessed both a sense of obligation and the feeling of gratefulness, which it would be pleasing often to see evinced as substantially by men in other lands, that have a better name for refinement than his, and where the