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 OF JAVA. 37 sand can write straight without lines to guide him. Such is the state of literature among the Java-^ nese, the most literary and civilized of all the In- dian islanders. The object of this work is to ren- der a faithful picture of them as they actually are, and not to draw attention to them, or excite pub- lic curiosity regarding them, by representing them as having made a progress in arts and knowledge which does not belong to their stage in society. A subject more inexplicable than the want of skill and refinement in writing and composition, which is referable at once to barbarity, is the won- derful feebleness and imbecility of all they write, the utter absence of that ardour, energy, and sub- limity, which has so often characterized the poetry of nations which had made far less progress in the arts which minister to comfort and necessity than the Javanese. The following remarks wdll, how- ever, go far to explain this. Every noble effort of the muse among barbarians has been made a- mong free barbarians, and not among the slaves of despotism, for reasons which it Would be super- fluous to explain. These free barbarians have ex^ isted only hi Europe. The East is the natural country of despotism. The superior fertility of the soil and benignity of the climate breed a less hardy race, — give rise to a more rapid civilization in the earlier stages of social existence,— to more