for I know you feel strongly-nay, I will even acknowledge that I have taken my last cup of tea without sugar, and that it was not so very disagreeable. But I will talk no more upon the subject now, only to say that if I was fairly convinced you were right, I believe I would give up the use at least of slave sugar." MATERNAL INFLUENCE. The immense force of first impressions is on the side of the mother. In the moral field she is a privileged labourer. Ere the dews of morning begin to exhale, she is there. She breaks up a soil which the root of error and the thorns of prejudice have not pre-occupied. She plants germs whose fruit is for eternity."-MRS. SIGOURNEY. Is there one among our maternal readers who will not pause upon the above impressive lines, to reflect, for a moment, on the awful responsibility of her station? Will not the name of Africa poor injured Africa rise to her thoughts, and her heart swell, and her eyes moisten with the high resolve that she, at least, will never lead the young beings who are sporting by her side to become instruments in the work of oppression? Will she not remember that the fate of thousands may, perhaps, be measurably committed to her handthat she may bring the rosy lip, now running over with the fulness of its innocent mirth, to pledge holy vows at the altar of Emancipation, and that all its eloquence shall be poured out in the defence of the oppressed-or that her tuition may prepare another auxiliary for the ranks of the powerful oppressor. Let her not think it a matter of indifference, that they should now, in their thoughtless infancy, be the innocent upholders of a system which in after life they ought to abhor. A misplaced indulgence now may make the beauties of life of higher consequence to them than the rights and tears of thousands; the gratification of your own loving vanity in their attire may render of no avail the lessons of a life-time. Do not say it would be folly to impose such restrictions upon children. Nothing can be folly which teaches them the noble virtue of self-denial in a righteous cause. Teach them early to pity the poor slave. Let their sacrifices be made voluntarily : as they will be, if the reason and feelings have been trained properly; and they will not be felt as such. Surely, children cannot be too early taught that their own pleasures should never infringe upon the rights of another. It is a lesson that must be commenced with the first awakening of reason to be inculcated efficiently, and when ye look upon them in the purity of their early years, let not their forms be arrayed in a garb that may well be to you a dark omen of the sin that will fling its evil mantle over their coming hours. IMPORTUNITY. It appears to be considered no small grievance by some of our gentle sisters, that the subject of slavery should so frequently be forced before their attention by the friends of Emancipation. They complain that it is but little short of persecution or slavery in itself, to be so frequently obliged to endure remonstrances on their inactivity, to be so perpetually called upon for their aid and sympathy, or so often reminded of what, they are told, is their duty. To us, this extreme sensitiveness seems not to belong to consciences so wholly untouched by the subject as they would be willing to appear. Persons are not usually disturbed at the approach of what is totally indifferent to them. We should rather suppose that their irritations proceeded, perhaps truly unconsciously, from a fear that such troublesome interference might dissipate the slumbers, which they have been at some pains to force upon a sense of duties which it might be troublesome to perform. Yet, if they were really as indifferent as they would persuade themselves they have a right to be, that would not be a sufficient reason why the voice of remonstrance should be silenced. Were it a subject that concerned only the personal gratification of the pleaders, then indeed their friends might justly complain if they were wearied with importunity. But this is not the case. Opposition to slavery is not a theme to be taken up merely in compliance with a prevailing fashion, or an individual taste or inclination. It is a question which concerns the vital interests of millions of human beings-of thousands of hundreds of thousands of our own sex; and those of us who feel that the influence of woman must and will be felt in its discussion, have a right to demand that it should be examined patiently. What! are we to behold our fellow-creatures suffering and oppressed-must we see, as it were, tears of blood wrung out, drop by drop, from the crushed hearts of our sisters, and yet stifle the indignant agony of our own bosoms, and fear to lift up our voices in their behalf, because you have grown weary of the harrowing tale of their anguish? Shall we smother the convictions of conscience, and silence the promptings of humanity, rather than intrude a disagreeable theme upon your ear? And turning to the helpless beings whose cause our God and our religion command us to plead as earnestly as if it were our own, shall we tell them, as the dim eye is lifted towards us in passionate supplication, that we are conscious our united efforts would release them from their soul-destroying bonds, but that you are wearied of the subject, and we like not to press it upon your attention! Would you not condemn, as a heartless wretch, the individual who could act thus by one single sufferer? How much less then may we so betray the cause of thousands! "Strike me," said the Athenian orator, "if you will but hear me !" and shall we desist to press upon your attention a subject of far greater moment than any merely political one that was ever agitated, because you have grown impatient of the often repeated topic? No! we must still again and again present it before you. We must not cease to assail you with our importunity till weariness is changed into interested and active compassion. If your hearts turn sickening away from the thought of so much wretchedness, reflect, then, that no exertions, no sacrifices of yours can be too great, that have for their object the alleviation of the lot of those who are actually groaning under its endurance. Even though you may not be certain of success, it is worth while, at least, to endeavour to do good; and should your efforts fall short of their desired end, you will be amply rewarded for them in the satisfaction of having done what you could, and in the consciousness that your brothers' blood will never lie with a burning weight upon your souls. REASONS FOR FLOGGING THE SLAVES. 101 REASONS FOR FLOGGING THE SLAVES. To those whose humane feelings have not been utterly debased, the afflictions of suffering nature, when the heart is bereaved of the dearest objects of its affection, appeal with an irresistible claim for compassion and sympathy. Who will not say that the heart must be dead to even the most common feelings of humanity, ere it can witness without some softening, the grief of an affectionate child for the loss of a beloved parent? Who would not shudder to make the sorrows of a bereaved wife the object of ridicule, still less to convert the natural exhibition of her woe into an offence demanding the infliction of a barbarous punishment? What mother, bending over the cold and pale brow of her beautiful and loved, would not feel it an inhuman cruelty to be denied the privilege of pouring out her grief in tears and lamentations? And how still more barbarous would such a restriction seem to her, if instead of resigning her darling in his unspotted innocence into the arms of God, he had been wrested from her by the hand of violence, and forced far and forever from her sheltering arms, to struggle alone beneath all the bitterness of life, and die at last on the bosom of ignominy? Yet such is the lot of the slave. Not only are all the dearest and strongest ties of her heart wantonly rent asunder, but the gushing forth of the natural feelings of her affection and tenderness, are arrested with cruel punishment. It is criminal in a slave to sink, heartbroken, under oppression. The possession of the best and holiest feelings with which the merciful God has enriched the human heart, is assigned as a reason why they must be ranked with the stubborn brutes, and, even more unmercifully than they, lacerated with the horse-whip! A female writer, on the subject of slavery in the West Indies, says, that a naval officer, who had been in the East Indies, was trying to prove to her, "that the negroes must be flogged;" and his proof was this: "that when they lose a father, or mother, or perhaps a lover, they sulk, (that is, they are broken-hearted,) and then nothing will do but flogging them, and flogging them severely." Nor is it only in the West India Islands, that the lash is thus used to silence the affecting bursts of filial or maternal sorrow. The forms of a million females in our own country, may be made to bleed and writhe beneath the barbarous thong. A million female hearts may be lacerated, at the will of tyrant man, by being wrenched from the objects of their fondest love. Oh, how can their happier sisters lie down and rise up with the knowledge of these things upon their souls, and strive not to release them from the grasp of such a thraldom! THE PARTING. It has been well and beautifully said that there is no medicine for a wounded heart, like the sweet influences of Nature. The broad, still, beautiful expansion of a summer landscapethe stealing in of the sunlight by glimpses among the treesthe unexpected meeting with a favourite blossom, half hidden among the luxuriant verdure-the sudden starting of a wild bird, almost from beneath your feet-the play of light and shade upon the surface of the gliding brook, and the ceaseless, glad, musical ripple of its waters—the gushing melody poured from a thousand throats, or the rapid and solitary warble, breaking out suddenly on the stillness, and withdrawn again almost as soon as heard the soft, hymn-like murmur of the honeybees-and above all, the majesty of the blue, clear, bending sky!—from all these steals forth a spirit of calm enjoyment, that mingles silently with the darker thoughts of the heart, and removes their bitterness. "If thou art worn and hard beset, With sorrows that thou wouldst forget- Go to the woods and hills!-no tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears." Yet there are moods of the soul, that even the ministering tenderness of Nature cannot brighten. There are sorrows which she cannot soothe, and, too often, alas! darker passions, which all her sweet and balmy influences cannot hush into tranquillity. When the human heart is foul with avarice, and the unblest impulses of tyranny, the eloquence of her meek beauty is breathed in vain. The most sublime and lovely scenes of nature have been made the theatre of wrong and violence; and the stony heart of the oppressor, though sur |