We Did Not Find That
Sonorousness In The Tonga-Tabboo Dialect, Which Is Prevalent In That
Of Otaheite, Because The Inhabitants Of The Former Have Adopted The F,
K, And S, So That Their Language Is More Replete With Consonants.
This
harshness is compensated, however, by the frequent use of the liquid
letters L, M, N, and of the softer vowels E and I, to which we must
add that kind of singing tone, which they generally retain even in
common conversation." - G.F.
No apology, it is presumed, need be given, for the insertion of so
able a specimen of philosophical discernment, and judicious reasoning.
Few men have exhibited happier talents for this department of
literature, than the younger Forster; and it is perhaps the more
generous to yield him this commendation now, as his merit has hitherto
been almost totally immersed in the celebrity of greater names. His
work is glaringly superior, in perhaps every particular, to the
compilation of Dr Hawkesworth; and the writer for one, would feel
ashamed of himself, if he had not courage to avow his opinion, that it
manifests greater excellencies than Cook's own relation, for which,
indeed, it would be easy to specify many reasons. This comparison, it
may be said, is invidious, the two men being so differently
constituted, as to habits and education, and having such different
objects in view in their undertakings, as to imply legitimate and
specific dissimilarity. Be it so, in the main. But how is justice to
be done them unless by comparison?
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