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Show 10 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR, "But this is a serious subject, my boy, Auguste," said Miss Ophelia, laying her band on his forehead. '' Dismally so," said he; "and I-- well, I never want to talk seriously in bot weather. What with mosquitos and all, a fellow can't get himself up to any very subhme moral flights; and I beHove," said St. Clare, suddenly rousmg hunself up, "there's a theory, now! I understand now why northern nations arc always more virtuous than southern ones,- I see into that whole subject." "0, Auguste, you are a sad rattle-brn.in! " "Am I 1 Well, so I am, I suppose; but for once I will be serious, now; but you must hand me that basket of oranges;- you see, you '11 have to 'stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples,' if I 'm going to nutkc this effort. Now," said Augustine, drawing the basket up, "I'll begin : Wlten, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a fellow to hold two or three dozen of his fellowworms in captivity, a decent regard to the opinions of society requires-'' "I don't sec that you arc growing more serious," said Miss Ophelia. ''Wait,- I 'm coming on,- you '11 hear. The short of the matter is, cousin," said he, his handsome face suddenly settling into an earnest and serious expression, " on this abstract question of slavery there can, as I think, be but one opmJOn. Planters, who have money to make by it,- clergymen, who have planters to please,- politicians, who want to rule by it,-may warp and bend language and ethics to a degree that shall astonish the world at their ingenuity; they can press nature and the Bible, and nobody knows what else, into the service; but, after all, neither they nor the world believe in it one particle the more. It comes from the devil, LU"E ~\MONG 1'llE LOWJ,L 11 that's the short of it;-and, to my mind, it's a. pretty respecta.ble specimen of what he can do in his own line." Miss Ophelia stopped her knitting, and looked surprised; and St. Clare, apparently enjoying her astonishment, went on. "You seem to wonder; but if you will get me fairly at it, I :n make a. clean breast of it. 'l1his cursed business, accursed of God and man, what is it 1 Strip it of all its ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it 1 Why, because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong,- because I know how, and can do it,- therefore, I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much ns suits my fancy. Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too disagreeable, for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I don't like work, Quashy shall work. Because the sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in tho sun. Quashy shall earn the money, and I will spend it. Quashy shall lie down in every puddle, that I may walk over dryshed. Quashy shall do my will, and not his, all the days of his mortal life, and have such chance of getting to heaven, at last, as I find convenient. This I take to be about what slavery is. I defy anybody on earth to read our slave-cede, as it stands in our law-books, and make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery ! Humbug ! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse ! And the only reason why the land don't sink under it, like Sedom and Gomorrab, is because it is usecl in a way infinitely better than it is. For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we arc men born of women, and not savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not,- we would scan~ to use the full power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes the furthest, and docs the worst, only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.'' |