 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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[1] - [2] PinkMonkey.com-MonkeyNotes-Typee, by Herman Melville 
PinkMonkey® Quotations on . . . TypeeBy Herman Melville QUOTATION: The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater
part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise extirpated
the greater portion of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping
from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same time
the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers. QUOTATION: I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in
this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature
than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one
of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred
men has nearly overturned all my previous theories. QUOTATION: Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among
several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies
of slain enemies alone; and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably
as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge
in it are in other respects humane and virtuous. QUOTATION: Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity:
she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance
and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality
of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful
friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of
a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe. QUOTATION: When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry
the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters
towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with
open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold
to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their
joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon
converted into the bitterest hate. QUOTATION: I ask whether the mere eating of human flesh so very far exceeds
in barbarity that custom which only a few years since was practised in
enlightened England:Ma convicted traitor, perhaps a man found guilty of
honesty, patriotism, and suchlike heinous crimes, had his head lopped
off with a huge axe, his bowels dragged out and thrown into a fire; while
his body, carved into four quarters, was with his head exposed upon pikes,
and permitted to rot and fester among the public haunts of men! QUOTATION: The voluptuous Indian, with every desire supplied, whom Providence
has bountifully provided with all the sources of pure and natural enjoyment,
and from whom are removed so many of the ills and pains of life—what
has he to desire at the hands of Civilization? She may “cultivate
his mind,”Mmay “elevate his thoughts,”Mthese I believe
are the established phrases—but will he be the happier? Let the once
smiling and populous Hawaiian islands, with their now diseased, starving,
and dying natives, answer the question. [1] - [2] |
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