or character. Many men are
unwilling to regard this traffic as wrong, because, by so doing, they
would seem to convey a reflection on their parents, or friends, who may
have been engaged in the same business. But nothing of this kind is
intended. The great laws of morals are indeed unchanged: but the degrees
of light and knowledge which men possess may be very different. We
should not deem it right to apply _our_ laws and knowledge, in judging
of the laws of Sparta, which authorized theft; nor our laws to judge of
the conduct of the Hindoo in exposing his father on the banks of the
Ganges; nor our present views to determine on the morality of our
fathers an hundred years ago in the slave-trade; nor our views of the
marriage relation to condemn the conduct of Abraham, David, or Jacob.
Man's conduct is to be estimated by the light which he has. They who sin
without law, are to be judged without law; and they who sin in the law,
are to be judged by the law. Your father might have been engaged in the
traffic in ardent spirits. Whether he was innocent or not, is not now
the question, and has been determined by a higher tribunal than any on
earth. The question now is, whether _you_ can pursue it with a good
conscience; or whether, with all that you know of the effects of the
traffic, it be right or wrong for you to pursue it.

* * * * *

With these necessary explanations, I proceed to PROVE that, in the sense
in which it has been explained, the traffic is MORALLY WRONG.

In proving this proposition, I shall take for granted two or three
points which are now conceded, and to establish which would lead me too
far out of my way. The first is, that this is not an employment in which
_the properties of the article are unknown_. The seller has as good an
opportunity to be acquainted with the qualities of the article, and its
effects, as the buyer. There is no concealment of its character and
tendency; there can be no pretence that you were deceived in regard to
those qualities, and that you were unintentionally engaged in the sale
of an article which has turned out to be otherwise than you supposed it
to be. For, alas, those properties are too well ascertained; and all who
are engaged in this employment have ample opportunity to know what they
are doing, and engage in it with their eyes open.

The _effects_ of this traffic are well known. The public mind has been,
with remarkable intensity, direct