intelligent observer, Mr. Magee of Mangareva, this element of the
mysterious is a chief attraction of the Mormon Church. It enjoys
some of the status of Freemasonry at home, and there is for the
convert some of the exhilaration of adventure. Other attractions
are certainly conjoined. Perpetual rebaptism, leading to a
succession of baptismal feasts, is found, both from the social and
the spiritual side, a pleasing feature. More important is the fact
that all the faithful enjoy office; perhaps more important still,
the strictness of the discipline. 'The veto on liquor,' said Mr.
Magee, 'brings them plenty members.' There is no doubt these
islanders are fond of drink, and no doubt they refrain from the
indulgence; a bout on a feast-day, for instance, may be followed by
a week or a month of rigorous sobriety. Mr. Wilmot attributes this
to Paumotuan frugality and the love of hoarding; it goes far
deeper. I have mentioned that I made a feast on board the Casco.
To wash down ship's bread and jam, each guest was given the choice
of rum or syrup, and out of the whole number only one man voted--in
a defiant tone, and amid shouts of mirth--for 'Trum'! This was in
public. I had the meanness to repeat the experiment, whenever I
had a chance, within the four walls of my house; and three at
least, who had refused at the festival, greedily drank rum behind a
door. But there were others thoroughly consistent. I said the
virtues of the race were bourgeois and puritan; and how bourgeois
is this! how puritanic! how Scottish! and how Yankee!--the
temptation, the resistance, the public hypocritical conformity, the
Pharisees, the Holy Willies, and the true disciples. With such a
people the popularity of an ascetic Church appears legitimate; in
these strict rules, in this perpetual supervision, the weak find
their advantage, the strong a certain pleasure; and the doctrine of
rebaptism, a clean bill and a fresh start, will comfort many