th, he actually talked to me as if I was recommending the
committal of some horrid sin. I'm afraid I shall be set down by him as a
rabid Abolitionist, I got so warm on the subject. I've cherished as strong
prejudices against coloured people as any one; but I tell you, seeing how
contemptible it makes others appear, has gone a great way towards
eradicating it in me. I found myself obliged to use the same arguments
against it that are used by the Abolitionists, and in endeavouring to
convince others of the absurdity of their prejudices, I convinced myself."

"I'd set my heart upon it," said Mrs. Bird, in a tone of regret; "but I
suppose I'll have to give it up. Charlie don't know I've made application
for his admission, and has been asking me to let him go. A great many of
the boys who attend there have become acquainted with him, and it was only
yesterday that Mr. Glentworth's sons were teasing me to consent to his
beginning there the next term. The boys," concluded she, "have better
hearts than their parents."

"Oh, I begin to believe it's all sham, this prejudice; I'm getting quite
disgusted with myself for having had it--or rather thinking I had it. As
for saying it is innate, or that there is any natural antipathy to that
class, it's all perfect folly; children are not born with it, or why
shouldn't they shrink from a black nurse or playmate? It's all bosh,"
concluded he, indignantly, as he brought his cane down with a rap.

"Charlie's been quite a means of grace to you," laughingly rejoined Mrs.
Bird, amused at his vehemence of manner. "Well, I'm going to send him to
Sabbath-school next Sunday; and, if there is a rebellion against his
admission there, I shall be quite in despair."

It is frequently the case, that we are urged by circumstances to the
advocacy of a measure in which we take but little interest, and of the
propriety of which we are often very sceptical; but so surely as it is just
in itself, in our endeavours to convert others we convince ourselves; and,
from lukewarm apologists, we become earnest advocates. This was just Mr.
Whately's case: he had begun to canvass for the admission of Charlie with
a doubtful sense of its propriety, and in attempting to overcome the
groundless prejudices of others, he was convicted of his own.

Happily, in his case, conviction was followed by conversion, and as he
walked home from Mrs. Bird's, he made up his mind that, if they attempted
to exclude Charlie from the Sa