ABSTRACT
THE strong nature of the King had received by the death of his child a blow the momentum of which could not at first be estimated by others, or, probably, by himself. It had shaken his whole being; but the insidious fractures did not show themselves till time had brought the disintegrating power of its heats and chills, and especially its stormy rains. For the present he returned into himself, and did not know that his wound was incurable. He resumed the work he had undertaken before the Prince's illness, and retiring with the Queen to a residence they possessed some twenty miles from Honolulu, he proceeded with the translation of the English Book of Common Prayer into his nati ve tongue. So, in their several literary occupations, Cowper strove against his deathlike despondency, Burton against the melancholy he anatomized, and Crud en against his fits of intermittent madness. The King's translation of our book of offices is in every respect a very remarkable work. It is remarkable in its origin; that he should of his own mere notion have designed such a labour; and without help and without fearfully weighing the difficulties of transfusing into his own language, deficient in words, and more deficient in abstract ideas, the moral and theological conceptions of the Church, should have
proceeded at once to his successful accomplishment of the task proposed to himself. It is remarkable for the original manner in which the King, exercising his own discretion, arranged the contents of the volume, placing the services in an order corresponding with what he conceived to be their importance and their frequency of use. The book commences with the sentences of morning prayer; the beginning of the Exhortation being rendered 'Ena hoahanau aloha! '-the last word, one of great significance and frequency in the months of Hawaiians, conveying, as has been already mentioned, love, salutation and good wishes. It is their universal word at greeting and at parting. Like the poi which the Hawaiians of every class eat, they could not go on without the word' aloha.' It most fitly makes its appearance there thus early, when the congregations are joined together to serve the Lord. Matins are followed by the order of evening prayer; the Litany,-in which the names of Kamehameha and Queen Emma, take the place of those of our royal family ;-the occasional prayers and thanksgivings. These are immediately succeeded by the catechism and the baptismal services. Then come the collects and the epistles and gospels; the administration of the holy communion; the burial service; matrimony; the churching of women; rules for finding the dominical and epact; the calendar, and the table of Feasts, &c.
