Planters, who have money to make by it,--clergymen, who have planters to please,--politicians, who want to rule by it,--may warp and bend language and ethics to a degree that shall astonish the world at their ingenuity; they can press nature and the Bible, and nobody knows what else, into the service; but, after all, neither they nor the world believe in it one particle the more.

It comes from the devil, that's the short of it;--and, to my mind, it's a pretty respectable specimen of what he can do in his own line." Miss Ophelia stopped her knitting, and looked surprised, and St.Clare, apparently enjoying her astonishment, went on.
"You seem to wonder; but if you will get me fairly at it, I'll make a clean breast of it.

This cursed business, accursed of God and man, what is it?
Strip it of all its ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it?
Why, because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong,--because I know how, and _can_ do it,--therefore, I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much as suits my fancy.

Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too disagreeable, for me, I may set Quashy to doing.

Because I don't like work, Quashy shall work.