diffusion of it, no matter how superficial or trifling,
which is known to prevail in Hindustan and
China.
Javanese books are written either on palm leaves
or on paper ; in the ruder parts of the island usually
on the former, and in the more civilized, on the
latter. Their paper is a peculiar manufacture of
their own, from the fibre of a plant cultivated for
the purpose, in appearance and .texture resembling
thin parchment, but peculiarly liable to be preyed
upon by the destructive insects of the climate.
Their intercourse with Europe and China supplies
them with the papers of these countries, and in their
best works that of the former is employed. The pens
made use of are either twigs from the Aren palm,
or quills as with ourselves, the latter being in gene-
ral preferred, though their use seems but recently
acquired from Europeans.
Though the Javanese character be peculiarly
neat and beautiful, very little pams are generally
taken with their writings, and no effort to produce
those finished and elegant specimens of penmanship
which distinguish the manuscripts of the
Turks, Persians, Arabs, and Mahomedans of India.
It is not in composition done that the Javanese
display the imperfection of the art, for even
in the mechanical part of it they are childish and
inexpert. The writing of an ordinary letter is a
work of pains and trouble, and not one in a thou.
sand can write straight without lines to guide
him.
Such is the state of literature among the Javanese,
the most literary and civilized of all the Indian
islanders. The object of this work is to render
a faithful picture of them as they actually are,
and not to draw attention to them, or excite public
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 wonderful
feebleness and imbecility of all they write,
the utter absence of that ardour, energy, and sublimity,
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 will, however,
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 superfluous
to explain. These free barbarians have existed
only in 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