the license of the poet and
painter. Mrs. Stowe belongs to this school of writers. The lamb and
lion are united in the Negro character. Mrs. Stowe's mistake consists
in ascribing to the Negro a peculiarly religious character and
disposition. Here is detected the mistake. The Negro is not, as she
supposes, the most religious being in the world. He has more religion
and has less religion than any other of the races, in one sense. And
yet, divorced from the circumstances by which he has been surrounded
in this country, he is not so very religious. Mrs. Stowe seizes upon a
characteristic that belongs to mankind wherever mankind is enslaved,
and gently binds it about the neck of the Negro. All races of men
become religious when oppressed. Frederick the Great was an infidel
when with his friend Voltaire, but when suffering the reverses of war
in Silesia he could write very pious letters to his "favorite sister."
This is true in national character when traced to its last analysis.
Men pray while they are down in life, but curse when up. And of
necessity the religion of a bond people is not always healthy. There
is an involuntary turning to a divine helper; a sort of religious
superstition, that believes all things, hopes all things, and is
patient. The soul of such a people is surcharged with an almost
incredulous amount of poetry, song, and rude but grand eloquence. And
when the songs that cheered and lighted many a heavy heart in the
starless night of bondage shall have been rescued and purified by the
art of music, the hymnology of this century will be greatly indebted
to this much-abused people. So, under this religious garb, woven by
the cruel experiences consequent upon slavery, the lion slumbers in
the Negro.

Every year since the close of the Rebellion the Negro has been taking
on better and purer traits of character. Possessed of an impressible
nature, a discriminating sense of the beautiful, and a deep, pure
taste for music, his progress has been phenomenal. Strong in his
attachments, gentle in manners, confiding, hopeful, enduring in
affection, and benevolent to a fault, there is no limit to the outcome
of his character.

Like the oscillations of the pendulum of a clock the Negro is swinging
from an extreme religious fanaticism to an extreme rationalism. But he
will finally take his position upon a solid religious basis; and to
his "faith" will add virtue, knowledge, and good works. Everywhere
under good influenc