Revised Jun 21 2021
With respect to literary occupation, "You will be glad to hear," wrote Mr. Armstrong to the author, "that they are all well educated. The young men are instructed in navigation, and some of the lower branches of mathematics. They all live together in the greatest harmony, and in the strictest observance of religious duties public, family, and private with every appearance of perfect freedom from all crime, and bearing the stamp of extreme innocence and simplicity.
"A new regulation has been recently made for the distribution of all their books among the families, they having been before kept as public property, as it was believed they would be more read and valued in that way. Shelves have been put up in all their houses, which are very neat and comfortable, though more like ship-cabins than dwelling-houses. The reason they give for this arrangement is, that they are in the habit of walking into each other's houses with the same freedom as into their own; and, taking up a book, will sit down and read it aloud, or not, as they feel disposed. The books of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge reached them in good time, some of which were particularly suitable; there being several copies of the same work, such as the Homilies and others."
Considering the employment found by the inhabitants, in the ways of industry above described, and the advantage and amusement derived from reading for the people have many books of general literature, as well as publications of a directly religious character the day cannot be said to hang heavy on their hands in Pitcairn's Island.
How various his employment whom the world
Calls idle, and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!
Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen,
Delightful industry enjoy'd at home,
And Nature in her cultivated trim
Dress'd to his taste, inviting him abroad
Can he want occupation who has these?
Will he be idle who has much t' enjoy?
A life all turbulence and noise may seem,
To him that leads it, wise, and to be praised;
But wisdom is a pearl, with most success
Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies.
COWPER.