negro-enthusiast. Because the
system of slavery has been swept away, it is not necessary to assert, as
some do, the negro's equality with the white man in those things wherein
he is plainly not his equal. Yet there is an equality that cannot be
denied. The negro is certainly a man, and not a brute animal; although
so demoralized and corrupt had grown to be the tone of society that we
have actually heard the opinion avowed, in all seriousness, that the
negro had no soul. Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' pleads for
himself and his Jewish brethren, in one of the most pathetic passages of
even Shakspeare's genius, as though the Hebrew race were considered less
than men. And such, indeed, was nearly the case in Shylock's time. On
the other hand, the Moor of Venice disdains to plead as to his
superiors. His conscious equality in presence of the 'grave and reverend
signiors,' gives to his renowned address a consummate dignity, unknown
elsewhere in literature. He felt, indeed, that his victories under the
flag of the republic entitled him not only to equality, but especial
honor. Is it not singular that in this nineteenth century there should
be found men who gladly accord to the Jew, the descendant of Shem, that
of which they refuse even the possibility to the dark descendant of Ham?
Surely the republic of Venice was not so far behind our boasted
civilization. Our civilization still clings to the idea of privilege.
The privilege of caste is only exchanged for the privilege of color.

Nor need we commit ourselves to the doctrine of some, who would appear
to think that the negro is to be the dominant race of the future; if not
in himself, yet in virtue of his supplementing the composite Anglo-Saxon
race, and thus giving to it a completeness it is assumed not to have at
present. Such we understand to be the doctrine of what styles itself
Miscegenation. It would be pertinent, and, perhaps, conclusive, to cite
on this point the Latin maxim, _De gustibus non disputandum_.

There are those who admire a certain new style of music, of which the
melody is chiefly hidden from the appreciation of common folk, and which
has received the title, 'Music of the Future;' looking forward to a time
when, perhaps, men's senses will be preternaturally quickened to
comprehend its discordant harmonies. It is something akin to that vagary
of religious sentiment, which, whatever may be its merits, whatever its
satisfaction for a spiritually illum