s of any moment should be lost in
so great a cause. Having at length finished this painful task, I sent my
Essay to the Vice-Chancellor, and soon afterwards found myself honoured,
as before, with the first prize.

[1] History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

"'As it is usual to read these essays publicly in the senate-house soon
after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose.
I went, and performed my office. On returning, however, to London, the
subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times
very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse
occasionally, and dismounted, and walked. I frequently tried to persuade
myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be
true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the
authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit.
Coming in sight of Wade's Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down
disconsolate on the turf by the road-side, and held my horse. Here a
thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true,
it was time some person should see these calamities to their end.
Agitated in this manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.

"'In the course of the autumn of the same year I experienced similar
impressions. I walked frequently into the woods, that I might think on
the subject in solitude, and find relief to my mind there. But there the
question still recurred, 'Are these things true?' Still the answer
followed as instantaneously,--'They are.' Still the result accompanied
it; 'Then, surely, some person should interfere.' I then began to envy
those who had seats in parliament, and who had great riches, and widely
extended connexions, which would enable them to take up this cause.
Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was turned
frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me,
among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could
not have that solid judgment, or knowledge of men, manners, and things,
which were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such
magnitude and importance: and with whom was I to unite? I believed also,
that it looked so much like one of the feigned labours of Hercules, that
my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On ruminating,
however, on the subject, I found one thing at least practicable, and
that this was also in my power.