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Show 222 A DIALOGUE. sec you make yourself so ridiculous I You ougl1t to know tlJat every man acts on the principle, that "Wcnlth is the chief good;" and yon ougl1t to kn0\\"1 too, th~t thm·c the slaveholders have tl1c ad vantage of yon entirely. They do right to work, and grind it out of the slaves on a large scale, and call Abraham and Moses to witness the patriarchal method, while your northern mercenaries scheme and speculate how they c::tn turn a penny out of ignorance and poverty, and have not even the apology of a precedent for their meanness. \Vhy, one of our generous southern planters is ns far above one of your stingy shn:rc-thrcc· ecnts-on-a-prd-tradcsmcn, as Robin llood is above a misC'r:ll,lc tea-spoon burglar. 'rho south sails under false colm-", docs it? What flag do your platform men give to the wind, I shonMlikc to know? \'{bat do they care for the Fugitive Slave I.aw? Iblf of them wouldl,clp a runaway to Cmtmb "·ith as good a will as they'd. cat their dinner. (Coming close and sitting down, so as to look fixedly in her face.) I'll tell you what, sister, the chivalry of the south n-...:pond: l0 you northern Christians who prate so lr•tl'l oi" brother· hoocl and charity, in the words of young Cancer to A DIALOGUE. 223 his mother-" Libenter tu~·s prcecepti's obsequar, si te prius £dem faci'entem viclcTo." Mrs. G. (very gently.) These strictures, brother, arc too keenly just. 'l'hcy remind me of Kossuth's assertion, that there is not :yet a Christian nation on the earth, nor yet a Christian church, that dare venture entirely upon the principles of the Gospel. Still, the aberration of reformers proves no more in favor of sla\·ery, tlmn the yjccs and miseries of civilized life prove tl1at barbarism is the natural and happy state of the human race; nay, t1csc very aberrations prove that a centripetal power counteracts the opposing force, aud holds them within the genial influence of the sun of truth. 'l'he law of spiritual gravitation is little understood. nut thousan<ls or philosophers arc closely observing tl1e phcno~lcnn., and carefully comparing them with the data given in the Sermon on the Mount; and it is not too much to hope that this generation will give to the wor1d a Newton, whose moral mathematics shall demonstrate that the law of love is the true theory of incliviJ.ual and notional prosperity. J,fr. F ·well, sister, I wish you much joy of yonr millcnni:tl state; but before the Sermon on the Mount |
