faithful and
obedient; and they cannot reconcile it with their sense of duty to
keep from them the perusal of the Bible.

The majority, however, think differently; and the majority will always
make the laws. _They_ believe that there is a talismanic power in
even the alphabet of knowledge, to arouse in the bondsman powers which
they would crush for ever. They believe that one truth leads on to
another, and that the mind, once aroused to inquiry, will never rest
until it has found out its native independence of man's dominion. They
point triumphantly, in proof of the policy of their system, to the
"spoiled slave," as they term many of those in whose training the
opposite course has been pursued. More trouble, vexation, and
insubordination, they confidently allege, has been caused by
permitting slaves to learn to read, than by any other indulgence.

It may be so; it is certain that, in many instances, masters have
failed to win the gratitude to which they thought themselves justly
entitled, for their kindness and care. They have found their servants
growing discontented and idle, where they hoped to make them docile
and happy. Searching for the cause of this, they perhaps turn upon the
course of training they have followed, and accuse it of being opposed
to the best interests of the slave. Could such reasoners but look upon
the matter in its true perspective, they would cease to wonder that
"good" should, in their view, "work out evil." _Learning_ and
_Slavery_ can never compromise; they are as the antagonistic poles of
the magnet.

In the first place, Slavery blunts the mind, and renders it, in its
early years, unsusceptible to those impressions which are generally so
lasting, when made upon youthful minds. Many who have tried to educate
colored children, have been led to accuse _the race_ of natural
inferiority in its capacity to gain knowledge. We have no right to
draw _that_ inference from the few attempts which have been made on a
part of the race whose mental faculties have, through many
generations, been crippled by disuse.

I had once under my charge, for a short time, a negro girl, born in
Africa--"Margru" of the "Armistad," with whose history most are
familiar. On _her_ ancestory hung no clog of depression, except that
of native wildness. There was no lack of aptitude to learn in her
case. She astonished all by the ease with which she acquired
knowledge, particularly in mathematical science. That a native h