ly assert, and
I think you have already yourselves seen enough to agree with me, that
the money intrusted to the societies is not thrown away or lavishly
expended; the missionaries labour with their own hands, and almost
provide for their own support."

"There I agree with you, Swinton," replied Alexander; "but what are the
objections raised against them? for now that I have seen them with my
own eyes, I cannot imagine what they can be."

"The objections which I have heard, and have so often attempted to
refute, are, that the generality of missionaries are a fanatical class
of men, who are more anxious to inculcate the peculiar tenets of their
own sects and denominations than the religion of our Saviour; that most
of them are uneducated and vulgar men--many of them very intemperate and
very injudicious--some few of them of bad moral character; and that
their exertions, if they have used them--whether to civilise or to
Christianise the people among whom they are sent--have not been followed
by any commensurate results."

"And now let us have your replies to these many objections."

"It is no doubt true that the missionaries who are labouring among the
savages of the interior are, many, if not most of them, people of
limited education. Indeed, the major portion of them have been brought
up as mechanics. But I much question whether men of higher attainments
and more cultivated minds would be better adapted to meet the capacities
of unintellectual barbarians. A highly-educated man may be appreciated
among those who are educated themselves; but how can he be appreciated
by the savage? On the contrary, the savage looks with much more respect
upon a man who can forge iron, repair his weapons, and excite his
astonishment by his cunning workmanship; for then the savage perceives
and acknowledges his superiority, which in the man of intellect he would
never discover.

"Besides, admitting that it would be preferable to employ persons of
higher mental attainments, where are they to be found? Could you
expect, when so many labourers are required in the vineyard, a
sufficient number of volunteers among the young men brought up at the
universities? Would they be able to submit to those privations, and
incur those hardships, to which the African missionaries are exposed?
Would they be able to work hard and labour for their daily bread, or be
willing to encounter such toil and such danger as must be encountered by
those who