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Show 74 honest, self-de11ying industry. Thus she invites us to throw off her yoke, and to make her our servant. Is this the invitation which the master gives his slaves? Is it his aim to awaken the powers of those on whom he lays his burdens, and to give them increasing mastery over himself? Is it not his aim to curb their will, break their spirits, and shut them up for ever in the same narrow and degrading work ? Oh, let not nature be profaned, let not her parental rule be blasphemed, by comparing with her the slaveholder! 2. Having considered the moral influence of slavery, I proceed to consider its Intellectual influence, another great topic. God gave us intellectual power, that it should be cultivated; and a system which degrades it, and can only be upheld by its depression, opposes one of his most benevolent designs. Reason is God's image in man, and the capacity of acquiring truth is among his best inspirations. To call forth the intellect is a principal purpose of the circumstances i" which we are placed, of the child's connexion with the parent, and of the necessity laid on him in maturer life to provide for himself and others. The education of the intellect is not confined to youth; but the various experience of later years does vastly more thau books and colleges to ripen and invigorate the faculties. 75 Now, the whole lot of the slave is fitted to keep his mind in childhood and bondage. T hough living in a land of light, few beams fmd their way to his benighted understanding. No parent feels the duty of instructing him. No teacher is provided for him, hut the Driver, who breaks him, almost in childhood, to the servile tasks which are to fill up his life. No hook is opened to his youthful curiosity. As he advances in years, no new excitements supply the place of teachers. He is not cast on himself, made to depend on his own energies. No stirring prizes in life awaken l_Jis dorm~nt faculties. Fed and clothed by others bke a clHid, directed in every step, doomed for life to a monotonous round of labor, he lives and dies without a spring to his powers, often brutally unconscious of his spiritual nature. Nor is this all. When benevolenee would approach him with instruction, it is repelled. He is not allowed to be taught. The li•ht is jealously ba1·red out. The voice, which w0ould speak to him as a man, is put to silence. He must not even be enabled to rear! the "Word of God. His immortal spirit is systematically crushed. It is said, I know, that the ignorance of the slave is necessary to the security of the master, and the quiet of the state; and this is said truly. Slavery and knowledge cannot live together. To e nlighten the slave is to break his chain. To make him |