m. But how little would what are commonly
called the rudiments of education, add to their qualifications as
laborers? But for the agitation which exists, however, their education
would be carried further than this. There is a constant tendency in our
society to extend the sphere of their employments, and consequently to
give them the information which is necessary to the discharge of those
employments. And this, for the most obvious reason, it promotes the
master's interest. How much would it add to the value of a slave, that
he should be capable of being employed as a clerk, or be able to make
calculations as a mechanic? In consequence, however, of the fanatical
spirit which has been excited, it has been thought necessary to repress
this tendency by legislation, and to prevent their acquiring the
knowledge of which they might make a dangerous use. If this spirit were
put down, and we restored to the consciousness of security, this would
be no longer necessary, and the process of which I have spoken would be
accelerated. Whenever indications of superior capacity appeared in a
slave, it would be cultivated; gradual improvement would take place,
until they might be engaged in as various employments as they were among
the ancients--perhaps even liberal ones. Thus, if in the adorable
providence of God, at a time and in a manner which we can neither
foresee nor conjecture, they are to be rendered capable of freedom and
to enjoy it, they would be prepared for it in the best and most
effectual, because in the most natural and gradual manner. But
fanaticism hurries to its effect at once. I have heard it said, God does
good, but it is by imperceptible degrees; the devil is permitted to do
evil, and he does it in a hurry. The beneficent processes of nature are
not apparent to the senses. You cannot see the plant grow, or the flower
expand. The volcano, the earthquake, and the hurricane, do their work of
desolation in a moment. Such would be the desolation, if the schemes of
fanatics were permitted to have effect. They do all that in them lies to
thwart the beneficent purposes of providence. The whole tendency of
their efforts is to aggravate present suffering, and to cut off the
chance of future improvement, and in all their bearings and results,
have produced, and are likely to produce, nothing but "pure, unmixed,
dephlegmated, defecated evil."

If Wilberforce or Clarkson were living, and it were inquired of them
"can you be sur