She may hate these slaveholders,--she may have her reasons,--but I cannot.

I cannot deal with them as _feras naturae_.

I cannot deny that they are no worse men than I; that I should have done what they are doing, have said what they are saying, had I been bred up, as they have been, with irresponsible power over the souls and bodies of human beings.

God! I shudder at the fancy! The brute that I might have been--that I should have been! "Yes; one thing at least I have learnt, in all my experiments on poor humanity;--never to see a man do a wrong thing, without feeling that I could do the same in his place.

I used to pride myself on that once, fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness.