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Show 280 A D AY SI'EX'l' AT dements of gentleness nnd compassion, nnd enforced by that energy and indomitable perseverance which arc cklractcristic of the Anglo·Sn.xon mind, they form a style of philanthropist' peculiarly efficient. In short, the Anglo-Saxon is efficient, in whatever he sets himself about, whether in crushing the weak, or lifting them up. 'l'homas Clarkson was born in a day when good, pious people, imported cargoes of slaves from Africa, as one of the regular Ctn·istinnizcd modes of gaining a subsistence, and providing for them and their house· bolus. It was a thing that everybody was doing, and everybody thought they had a right to do. It was supposed that all the coffee, tea, and sugar in the world were dependent on stealing men, "·omen, and chilurcn, and could he got no other "·ay; and as to consume cofl'ce, sugar, rice, and rum, 'rcre cviJcntly the chief ends of human existence, it fullowed tlut men, women, and children, must be stolen to the end of time. Some good people, when they now an•l thou heard an appalling story of the cruelties practiced in the slave ship, declared that it was rcal"y too bad, sympa· thetically remarked, "What " sorrowflll world we PLA Y F ORD HALL. 281 live in," stirred their sugar into their tea, and went on as before, because', what was there to do-ktdn't e\'erybocly always clone it, and if they cliun'~ do it, "·ouldn't somebody elso? . It is true that for many years inclividua~s, at difl~rcnt times, remonstrated, had written treatises, poems, stories, and movements had been made by some religious belies, particularly the Quokcro, but the opposi· tion l1ad amounted to nothing practically efficient. 'l'bc attention of Clarkson was first turncu to the 'Sul.Jjcct by having it given out as the theme for a prize composition in his college clas.!;l, he being at tbat time a sp1·ighlly young man, about twcnty·four years of age. lie entered into the investigation with no other purpose than to sec what he could make of it as a col· lege theme. llc says of himself: " I had expoctecl pleos:1rc from the invention of arguments, from the :urangemcut of them, from the putting of them together, and from the thought., in the interim, that I was cngnged in nn innocent contest for literary honor, bll~ all 1ny pleasures were clamped by the fncts, which were now con· linually bcforo me. " It was but one gloomy subject from morning till |