of their twelve hundred black converts, only two had joined the rebellion.

Ridicule and reproach has been abundantly heaped upon the laborers in this righteous cause. Power, wealth, talent, pride, and sophistry, are all in arms against them; but God and truth is on their side. The cause of anti-slavery is rapidly gaining ground. Wise heads as well as warm hearts, are joining in its support. In a few years I believe the opinion of New-England will be unanimous in its favor. Maine, which enjoys the enviable distinction of never having had a slave upon her soil, has formed an Anti-Slavery Society composed of her best and most distinguished men. Those who are determined to be on the popular side, should be cautious how they move just now: It is a trying time for such characters, when public opinion is on the verge of a great change.

Men who think upon the subject, are fast coming to the conclusion that slavery can never be much ameliorated, while it is allowed to exist. What Mr. Fox said of the trade is true of the system—“ you may as well try to regulate murder." It is a disease as deadly as the cancer; and while one particle of it remains in the constitution, no cure can be effected. The relation is unnatural in itself, and therefore it reverses all the rules which are applied to other human relations. Thus a free government which in every other point of view is a blessing, is a curse to the slave. The liberty around him is contagious, and therefore the laws must be endowed with a tenfold crushing power, or the captive will break his chains. A despotic monarch can follow the impulses of humanity without scruple. When Vidius Pollio ordered one of his slaves to be cut to pieces and thrown into his fish-pond, the Emperor Augustus commanded him to emancipate immediately, not only that slave, but all his slaves. In a free State there is no such power; and there would be none needed, if the laws were equal,-but the slave-owners are legislators, and make the laws, in which the negro has no voice-the master influences public opnion, but the slave

cannot.

Miss Martineau very wisely says; "To attempt to combine freedom and slavery is to put new wine into old skins. Soon may the old skins burst? for we shall never want for better wine than they have ever held."

A work has been lately published, written by Jonathan

Dymond, who was a member of the Society of Friends, in England; it is entitled "Essays on the Principles of Morality"—and most excellent Essays they are. Every sentence recognises the principle of sacrificing all selfish considerations to our inward perceptions of duty; and therefore every page shines with the mild but powerful light of true Christian philosophy. I rejoice to hear that the book is likely to be republished in this country. In his remarks on slavery the author says: "The supporters of the system will hereafter be regarded with the same public feelings, as he who was an advocate of the slave trade now is. How is it that legislators and public men are so indifferent to their fame? Who would now be willing that biography should record of him,―This man defended the slave trade? The time will come when the record,―This man opposed the abolition of slavery, will occasion a great deduction from the public estimate of weight of character."

CHAPTER VI.

INTELLECT OF NEGROES.

"We must not allow negroes to be men, lest we ourselves should be suspected of not being Christians." MONTESQUIEU.

In order to decide what is our duty concerning the Africans and their descendants, we must first clearly make up our minds whether they are, or are not, human beings— whether they have, or have not, the same capacities for improvement as other men.

The intellectual inferiority of the negroes is a common, though most absurd apology, for personal prejudice, and the oppressive inequality of the laws; for this reason, I shall take some pains to prove that the present degraded condition of that unfortunate race is produced by artificial causes, not by the laws of nature.

In the first place, naturalists are universally agreed concerning "the identity of the human type;" by which they mean that all living creatures, that can, by any process, be enabled to perceive moral and intellectual truths, are characterized by similar peculiarities of organization. They may differ from each other widely, but they still belong to the same class. An eagle and a wren are very unlike each other; but no one would hesitate to pronounce that they were both birds: so it is with the almost endless varieties of

the monkey tribe. We all know that beasts, however saga. cious, are incapable of abstract thought, or moral perception. The most wonderful elephant in the world could not command an army, or govern a state. An ourang-outang may eat, and drink, and dress, and move like a man; but he could never write an ode, or learn to relinquish his own good for the good of his species. The human conformation, however it may be altered by the operation of physical or moral causes, differs from that of all other beings, and on this ground, the negro's claim to be ranked as a man, is universally allowed by the learned.

The condition of this people in ancient times is very far from indicating intellectual or moral inferiority. Ethiopia held a conspicuous place among the nations. Her princes were wealthy and powerful, and her people distinguished for integrity and wisdom. Even the proud Grecians evinced respect for Ethiopia, almost amounting to reverence, and derived thence the sublimest portions of their mythology. The popular belief that all the gods made an annual visit to the Ethiopians, shows the high estimation in which they were held; for we are not told that such an honor was bestowed on any other nation. In the first book of the Iliad, Achilles is represented as anxious to appeal at once to the highest authorities; but his mother tells him: Jupiter set off yesterday, attended by all the gods, on a journey toward the ocean, to feast with the excellent Ethiopians, and is not expected back at Olympus till the twelfth day.'

In Ethiopia, was likewise placed the table of the Sun, reported to kindle of its own accord, when exposed to the rays of that great luminary.

In Africa was the early reign of Saturn, under the appellation of Ouranus, or Heaven; there the impious Titans warred with the sky; there Jupiter was born and nursed; there was the celebrated shrine of Ammon, dedicated to Theban Jove, which the Greeks reverenced more highly than the Delphic Oracle; there was the birth-place and oracle of Minerva; and there, Atlas supported both the heavens and the earth upon his shoulders.

It will be said that fables prove nothing. But there is probably much deeper meaning in these fables than we now understand; there was surely some reason for giving them such a "local habitation." Why did the ancients represent Minerva as born in Africa,—and why are we told that Atlas there sustained the heavens and the earth, unless they meant to imply that Africa was the centre, from which religious and scientific light had been diffused?

Some ancient writers suppose that Egypt derived all the arts and sciences from Ethiopia; while others believe precisely the reverse. Diodorus supported the first opinion,and asserts that the Ethiopian vulgar spoke the same language as the learned of Egypt.

It is well known that Egypt was the great school of knowledge in the ancient world. It was the birth-place of Astronomy; and we still mark the constellations as they

were arranged by Egyptian shepherds. The wisest of the Grecian philosophers, among whom were Solon, Pythagoras and Plato, went there for instruction, as our young men now go to England and Germany. The Eleusinian mysteries were introduced from Egypt; and the important secret which they taught, is supposed to have been the existence of one, invisible God. A large portion of Grecian mythology was thence derived; but in passing from one country to the other, the form of these poetical fables was often preserved, while the original meaning was lost.

Herodotus, the earliest of the Greek historians, informs us that the Egyptians were negroes. This fact has been much doubted, and often contradicted. But Herodotus certainly had the best means of knowing the truth on this subject; for he travelled in Egypt, and obtained his knowledge of the country by personal observation. He declares that the Col. chians must be a colony of Egyptians, because, "like them, they have a black skin and frizzled hair.”

The statues of the Sphinx have the usual characteristics of the negro race. This opinion is confirmed by Blumenbach, the celebrated German naturalist, and by Volney, who carefully examined the architecture of Egypt.

Concerning the sublimity of the architecture in this ancient negro kingdom, some idea may be conceived from the description of Thebes given by Denon, who accompanied the French army into Egypt: "This city, renowned for numerous kings, who through their wisdom have been elevated to the rank of gods; for laws, which have been revered without being known; for sciences, which have been confided to proud and mysterious inscriptions; for wise and earliest monuments of the arts, which time has respected; -this sanctuary, abandoned, isolated through barbarism, and surrendered to the desert from which it was won; this city, shrouded in the veil of mystery by which even colossi are magnified; this remote city, which imagination has only caught a glimpse of through the darkness of time—was still so gigantic an apparition, that, at the sight of its scattered ruins, the army halted of its own accord, and the soldiers, with one spontaneous movement, clapped their hands."

The honorable Alexander Everett, in his work on America, says: "While Greece and Rome were yet barbarous, we find the light of learning and improvement emanating from the continent of Africa, (supposed to be so degraded