Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light: 10 And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones, The palaces of crowned kings--the huts, The habitations of all things which dwell, Happy were those who dwelt within the eye The flashes fell upon them; some lay down Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up 30 The pall of a past world; and then again And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd, And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Gorging himself in gloom : no love was left; Of famine fed upon all entrails-—men 45 Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The meagre by the meagre were devour'd, Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one, The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand And they were enemies; they met beside Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things 60 For an unholy usage; they raked up, And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands Blew for a little life, and made a flame Which was a mockery; then they lifted up 65 Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died— Even of their mutual hideousness they died, Unknowing who he was upon whose brow Famine had written Fiend. The world was void, 70 The populous and the powerful was a lump, Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifelessA lump of death-a chaos of hard clay. The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still, And nothing stirred within their silent depths; 75 Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd The waves were dead; the tides were in their 80 The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd: Darkness had no need Of aid from them-She was the universe. grave, Byron. The land is not wholly free from the contamination of a traffic, at which every feeling of humanity must forever revolt-I mean the African slave trade. Neither public sentiment, nor the law, has hitherto been able entirely 5 to put an end to this odious and abominable trade. At the moment when God, in his mercy, has blessed the Christian world with an universal peace, there is reason to fear, that to the disgrace of the christian name and character, new efforts are making for the extension of 10 this trade, by subjects and citizens of Christian states, in whose hearts no sentiment of humanity or justice inhabits, and over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law, the African slave trader is a pirate and a felon; 15 and in the sight of heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our history, than that which records the measures which have been adopted by the government, at an early day, and at different times since, for the sup20 pression of this traffic; and I would call on all the true sons of New-England, to co-operate with the laws of man, and the justice of heaven. If there be within the extent of our knowledge or influence, any participation in this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here, to extirpate 25 and destroy it. It is not fit, that the land of the Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, 1 see the smoke of the furnaces where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those, who by stealth, and at mid30 night, labour in this work of hell, foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New-England. Let it be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put 35 out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it. I would invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they execute the 40 wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of these crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever, or wherever, there may be a sinner bloody 45 with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pul pit is false to trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has reaped his harvest upon the seas, that he assist in scourging from those seas the worst pirates which ever infested them. That ocean, which seems to wave with 50 a gentle magnificence to waft the burdens of an honest commerce, and to roll along its treasures with a conscious pride; that ocean, which hardy industry regards, even when the winds have ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil; what is it to the victim of this oppres55 sion, when he is brought to its shores, and looks forth upon it, for the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with stripes? What is it to him, but a wide spread prospect of suffering, anguish, and death? Nor do the skies smile longer, nor is the air longer fragrant 60 to him. The sun is cast down from heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut him off in his manhood, or in his youth, from every enjoyment belonging to his being, and every blessing which his Creator intended for him. Webster. O, I have passed a miserable night, Methought, that I had broken from the Tower, 10 Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches; thence we looked toward England, 15 Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought, that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, O, then methought, what pain it was to drown! 20 What dreadful noise of waters in my ears! What sights of ugly death within mine eyes! Methought, I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 25 Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels; All scattered in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's sculls; and, in those holes And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by. To yield the ghost; but still the envious flood The first that there did greet my stranger-soul, Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick; 45 Who cried aloud- "What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence ?" And so he vanished. Then came wandering by "A shadow like an angel, with bright hair Dabbled in blood! and he shrieked out aloud50 "Clarence is come-false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, --That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury ;-Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments !". With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends Environed me, and howled in mine ears 55 Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise, I trembling waked; and, for a season after, Could not believe but that I was in hell; Such terrible impression made my dream. Shakspeare. |