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Show 296 A DAY SPENT AT principle adopted by them was the same so sublimely adopted by the church in Americ:~, in reference to the Foreign l.fission:uy cause: "rrhc field .is tl10 worlJ.ll ~'hey saw and felt that as the example and practice of Euglancl had been powerful in giving sanction to ~his cvll, and particularly in introducing it into America, that there '\'US the greatest rcnson why she should never intermit her ciforts tiU the wrong was rig Ltcd throughout the earth. Clarkson to his lust day ncYer ceased to be interested in the subject, and took the warmest interest in all movements for the nbo_lition of slavery in America. One of his friend~, during my visit at this place, read me a manuscript 1e1tcr from him, written at a very advanced ngc, in which he speaks with the utmost ardor and enthusiasm of the fi r3t anti-slavery movements of Cassius Clny in Kentucky. rrhc same friend described him to me as a: cheerful) companionable bcing,- frank and simple-hearted, and with a good <leal of quiet humor. li is remarkable of him that with such intense feeling: for l111m:-tn snfl'oring ns he l1acl, and worn down and cxhn us~e~.l :.:she wns1 !).r ihc drc:tdful mi~crics aml sorrows with which he .was constantly obliged to be PLAYFORD HALL. 297 familiar, he never yielded to a spirit of bitterness or denunciation. The narrative wbicb be gives is as calm and unimpassioned, and as free from any trait of this lei nd, as the narrative of the evangelist. I have given this sketch of what Clarkson did, that you may better appreciate the feelings with which I visited the place. The old stone honse, the moat, the draw-bridge, all spoke of days of violence long gone by, when no man was safe except within fortified walls, and every man's house literally had to he his castle. To me it was interesting as the dwelling of a conqueror, as one who had not wrestled with flesh and blood mere] y, but with principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and who had overcome, as his great Master did before him, by faith, and prayer, and labor. We were received with much cordiality by the widow of Clarkson, now in her eighty-fourth year. She bas been a woman of great energy and vigor, and an efficient co-laborer in his plans of benevolence, She is now quite feeble. I was placed under the care of a respectable female servant, who forthwith 13* |