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another because they are fond of risking their own lives or other men's, but because public notions are such as they are. Nor do I think any deduction can be more manifestly just than that he who contributes to the misdirection of these notions is responsible for a share of the evil and the guilt.

THE POWER OF NON-RESISTANCE.

The Americans thought that it was best for the general welfare that they should be independent; but England persisted in imposing a tax. Imagine, then, America to have acted upon Christian principles, and to have refused to pay it, but without those acts of exasperation and violence which they committed. England might have sent a fleet and an army. To what purpose? Still no one paid the tax. The soldiery perhaps sometimes committed outrages, and they seized goods instead of the impost; still the tax could not be collected except by a system of universal distraint. Does any man, who employs his reason, believe that England would have overcome such a people? does he believe that any government or any army would have gone on destroying them? especially does he believe this, if the Americans continually reasoned coolly and honorably with the other party, and manifested, by the unequivocal language of conduct, that they were actuated by reason and by Christian rectitude? No nation exists which would go on slaughtering such a people. It is not in human nature to do such things; and I am persuaded not only that American independence would have been secured, but that very far fewer of the Americans would have been destroyed, that very much less of devastation and misery would have been occasioned, if they had acted upon these principles instead of upon the vulgar system of exasperation and violence. In a word, they would have attained the same advantage, with more virtue, and at less cost.

SLAVERY.

To him who examines slavery by the standard to which all questions of human duty should be referred, the task of deciding, we say, is short. Whether it is consistent with the Christian law for one man to keep another in bondage without his consent, and to compel him to labor for that other's advantage, admits of no more doubt than whether two and two make four. It were humiliating, then, to set about the proof that the slave system is incompatible with Christianity; because no man questions its incompatibility who knows what Christianity is, and what it requires.

The distinctions which are made between the original robbery in Africa, and the purchase, the inheritance, or the "breeding" of slaves in the colonies, do not at all respect the kind of immorality

that attaches to the whole system. They respect nothing but the degree. The man who wounds and robs another on the highway is a more atrocious offender than he who plunders a hen-roost; but he is not more truly an offender, he is not more certainly a violator of the law. And so with the slave system. He who drags a wretched man from his family in Africa is a more flagitious transgressor than he who merely compels the African to labor for his own advantage; but the transgression, the immorality, is as real and certain in one case as in the other. He who had no right to steal the African can have none to sell him. From him who is known to have no right to sell, another can have no right to buy or to possess. Sale, or gift, or legacy imparts no right to me, because the seller, or giver, or bequeather had none himself. The sufferer has just as valid a claim to liberty at my hands, as at the hands of the ruffian who first dragged him from his home. Every hour of every day, the present possessor is guilty of injustice. Nor is the case altered with respect to those who are born on a man's estate. The parents were never the landholder's property, and therefore the child is not. Nay, if the parents had been rightfully slaves, it would not justify me in making slaves of their children. No man has a right to make a child a slave but himself. What are our sentiments upon kindred subjects? What do we think of the justice of the Persian system, by which, when a state offender is put to death, his brothers and his children are killed or mutilated too? Or, to come nearer to the point, as well as nearer home, what should we say of a law which enacted that of every criminal who was sentenced to labor for life, all the children should be sentenced so to labor also? And yet, if there is any comparison of reasonableness, it seems to be in one respect in favor of the culprit. He is condemned to slavery for his crimes; the African for another man's profit.

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It is quite evident that our slave system will be abolished,1 and that its supporters will hereafter be regarded with the same public feelings as he who was an advocate of the slave-trade is now. How is it that legislators or that 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 worth of character. When both these atrocities are abolished, and, but for the page of history, forgotten, that page will make a wide difference between those who aided the abolition and those who obstructed it. The one will be ranked among the Howards that are departed, and the other among those who, in ignorance or in guilt, have employed their little day in inflicting misery upon mankind.

This was, of course, written before the glorious act of Great Britain-the emancipation of the slaves in all her colonies in 1834.

HUMPHRY DAVY, 1778-1829.

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, who ranks as a man of science second to none in in the nineteenth century, was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December, 1778. From his childhood he showed a remarkable quickness in acquiring knowledge, and a decided love of literature. He was early bound as an apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary of his native town, who had a great taste for chemical experiments. Here young Davy found what was entirely congenial to his tastes, and with such extraordinary enthusiasm did he devote himself to these pursuits, that he abandoned all the usual enjoyments and relaxations of youth, and showed an aversion to all festive society. He had to contend against many disadvantages, but what is impossible to an enthusiastic and determined mind? His success in scientific inquiries in a few years became known and appreciated, and he was engaged as an assistant to Dr. Beddoes in the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol.

In 1803, Davy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he subsequently became secretary, and finally president. During a period of twenty-five years he constantly supplied its "Transactions" with papers; and "it is not too much to say, that no individual philosopher, in any age or country, ever contributed so largely in extending truth, or ever achieved so much in eradicating error." Besides Six Discourses delivered before the Royal Society, at their Anniversary meetings, there are recorded fifty-one different Treatises and Lectures on various scientific subjects.

But that for which he is most widely known is the discovery of the "Safety Lamp." In the year 1816, after a long series of experiments, he discovered that if the flame of a lamp was protected by a wire gauze, the gases brought in contact with the lamp would not explode, while the light would still be preserved. This great discovery, which enabled miners to work in perfect safety, where before dreadful accidents were constantly occurring, was so appreciated by the coal owners of the north of England, that they invited him to a public dinner at Newcastle, and presented him with a service of plate valued at £2000. The Emperor of Russia sent him a splendid silver vase, as a testimony of regard, and he was created a baronet. But his best reward was the consciousness that the simple implement he had invented, annually saved hundreds of lives: indeed, it is said that an explosion has not been known where the "Safety Lamp" has been used.

Sir Humphry's constant labours so impaired his health, that in 1828 he resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society, and went to Italy for the benefit of his health, where he amused himself in writing his "Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher." These last days were fast approaching: he quitted Italy in a very weak state, but had only reached Geneva on his way home, when he died there on the morning of the 30th of May, 1829.

Sir Humphry Davy combined qualities we but rarely find united. Great quickness of perception, a peculiarly retentive memory, and a vivid imagination, together with habits of the most laborious investigation, enabled him to achieve discoveries which made his life equally honorable and useful. His disposition

was amiable and kind, he remembered with peculiar pleasure the scenes of his boyhood, and no alteration of fortune or situation could wean him from the friendships of his early years. Science was with him no grovelling pursuit for mere distinction, or the acquisition of wealth; but, to use his own language, it was "the love of knowledge or of intellectual power, which is, in fact, in its ultimate and most perfect development, the love of infinite Wisdom, or the love of God."

Though Sir Humphry Davy gave but little time to literature, strictly so called, I have here introduced his name, and written this short notice of his life, for the sake of giving some extracts from a work that he published in the spring of 1828, entitled "Salmonia, or Days of Fly Fishing." It is a most interesting book, something after the manner of old Izaak Walton's "Complete Angler," and contains many precious gems of description and reflection. From it I select the following:

THE PLEASURES AND ADVANTAGES OF FISHING.

The search after food is an instinct belonging to our nature; and from the savage in his rudest and most primitive state, who destroys a piece of game or a fish, with a club or spear, to man in the most cultivated state of society, who employs artifice, machinery, and the resources of various other animals, to secure his object, the origin of the pleasure is similar, and its object the same: but that kind of it requiring most art may be said to characterize man in his highest or intellectual state; and the fisher for salmon and trout with the fly employs not only machinery to assist his physical powers, but applies sagacity to conquer difficulties; and the pleasure derived from ingenious resources and devices, as well as from active pursuit, belongs to this amusement. Then as to its philosophical tendency, it is a pursuit of moral discipline, requiring patience, forbearance, and command of temper. As connected with natural science, it may be vaunted as demanding a knowledge of the habits of a considerable tribe of created beings-fishes, and the animals that they prey upon, and an acquaintance with the signs and tokens of the weather and its changes, the nature of waters, and of the atmosphere. As to its poetical relations, it carries us into the most wild and beautiful scenery of nature; among the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the odors of the bank perfumed by the violet, and enamelled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with

the music of the bee; and on the surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated gems in the sunbeams, while the bright and beautiful trout is watching them from below; to hear the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your approach, rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the waterlily; and as the season advances, to find all these objects changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, till the swallow and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May-fly, and till in pursuing your amusement in the calm and balmy evening, you are serenaded by the songs of the cheerful thrush and melodious nightingale, performing the offices of paternal love, in thickets ornamented with the rose and woodbine.

LIFE COMPARED TO A RIVER.

A full and clear river is, in my opinion, the most poetical object in nature. Pliny has, as well as I recollect, compared a river to human life. I have never read the passage in his works, but I have been a hundred times struck with the analogy, particularly amidst mountain scenery. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque country, nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind in which fancy and strength of imagination are predominant-it is more beautiful than useful. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions; it is applied to move machinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately barge;-in this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on toward the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters.

THE BLESSINGS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH.

I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, or fancy: but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness-creates new hopes, when all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity: makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to paradise ; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest,

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