irreligious men,—­men who make no pretentious to religion, men who rarely attend the preaching of the gospel themselves, should encourage their slaves to attend divine service, and, in some instances build churches and employ ministers for the benefit of their own slaves.  Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true.  But admitting the fact, and I cheerfully admit it, that all has been done that was practicable, under the circumstances, to Christianize the African race in the Southern States, yet the principles of Christianity have exerted on them but a partial influence, in consequence of their ignorance.  No people can be brought fully under the influence of the Christian religion, unless their minds are at the same time enlightened and expanded by literature.  Religion and literature are twin sisters; bound together by indissoluble ties, and the Divine Being never intended that they should be separated.  Religious instruction without literary culture, can produce but a partial and superficial effect on the human mind; it can produce no strong, permanent and abiding influence.  When the gospel is preached to an ignorant, illiterate, semi-savage people, the seed is sown in an incongenial soil, and the product will be in accordance with the soil in which the seed is sown.  This accounts for a fact stated in the preceding pages, that slaves apparently pious, when liberated and exposed to certain temptations, were very likely to fall into their former habits and vices.  It also accounts for the fact, that but few Africans can bear flattery and attention from the white race, it matters not how virtuous and pious they may be; it is certain to elate them, and to excite them to acts of indiscretion, and sometimes to acts grossly vicious.  It is so common for Southern slaves who arc apparently pious, when exposed to temptation to fall into acts of gross immorality, that many unthinking persons in the South have come to the conclusion that there is no sincere piety among them; that they are insincere and hypocritical in their professions and pretentious.  A gentleman once remarked to me, that he had never seen an African in whose piety he had entire confidence.  It was a remark, I believe of Doctor Nelson, (the author of the celebrated work on infidelity,) that he had never seen but one or two consistently pious slaves.  The doctor was long a resident of Tennessee, a practitioner of medicine and a minister of the gospel, and certainly had good opportunities for forming correct opinions on the subject; but it appears to me that such views are not only uncharitable, but also unphilosophical.  Professors of the Christian religion of the African race are not less sincere than are the same class of persons among the white race.  On the contrary a slave is more likely than his master to attach himself to a church from pure motives.  Many considerations may induce a white man to make a profession of religion, which have no bearing, force, or influence whatever,