other countries, for the exercise of their philanthropy and love.  Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and practice of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times.  Though the old philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated benevolence, we have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left us, that persons in their days did anything more than occasionally relieve an unfortunate object, who might present himself before them, or that, however they might deplore the existence of public evils among them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms.  To Christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle, of seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each other; of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and public misery; and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united brotherhood, into distant lands.  And in this wider field of benevolence it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has shone with more true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of acknowledged affliction, for which some of her Christian children have not united in an attempt to provide relief.

Among the evils corrected or subdued, either by the general influence of Christianity on the minds of men, or by particular associations of Christians, the African[A].  Slave Trade appears to me to have occupied the foremost place.  The abolition of it, therefore, of which it has devolved upon me to write the history, should be accounted as one of the greatest blessings, and as such should be one of the most copious sources of our joy:  indeed, I know of no evil, the removal of which should excite in us a higher degree of pleasure.  For, in considerations of this kind, are we not usually influenced by circumstances?  Are not our feelings usually affected according to the situation, or the magnitude, or the importance of these?  Are they not more or less elevated, as the evil under our contemplation has been more or less productive of misery, or more or less productive of guilt?  Are they not more or less elevated again, as we have found it more or less considerable in extent?  Our sensations will undoubtedly be in proportion to such circumstances, or our joy to the appreciation or mensuration of the evil which has been removed.

[Footnote A:  Slavery had been before annihilated by Christianity; I mean in the West of Europe, at the close of the twelfth century]

To value the blessing of the abolition as we ought, or to appreciate the joy and gratitude which we ought to feel concerning it, we must enter a little into the circumstances of the trade.  Our statement, however, of these needs not be long:  a few pages will do all that is necessary!  A glance only into such a subject as this will be sufficient to affect the heart,—­to arouse our indignation and our pity,—­and to teach us the importance of the victory obtained.