Still in thought as free as ever, What are England's rights I ask, Me from my delights to sever, Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same Why did all-creating Nature Make the plant for which we toilSighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, Lolling at your jovial boards; Think how many backs have smarted For the sweets your cane affords. Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, Is there one, who reigns on high? Has he bid you buy and sell us, Speaking from his throne, the sky? Ask him, if your knotted scourges, Matches, blood-extorting screws, Are the means that duty urges Agents of his will to use? Hark! he answers-wild tornadoes, Strewing yonder sea with wrecks ; Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, Are the voice with which he speaks. He, foreseeing what vexations Afric's sons should undergo, Fix'd their tyrants' habitations Where his whirlwinds answer-No. By our blood in Afric wasted, Ere our necks receiv'd the chain ; By the mis'ries that we tasted, By our suffrings since ye brought us Deem our nation brutes no longer, PITY FOR POOR AFRICANS. Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor.............. I OWN I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves, And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves; What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and groans, Is almost enough to draw pity from stones. I pity them greatly-but I must be mum- What, give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea! Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes, If foreigners likewise would give up the trade, Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest, His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob, He was shock'd, sir, like you, and answer'd—“ Oh no! "You speak very fine, and you look very grave, If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear." They spoke, and Tom ponder'd-" I see they will go; Poor man! what a pity to injure him so! Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could But staying behind will do him no good. "If the matter depended alone upon me, His apples might hang till they dropp'd from the tree; His scruples thus silenc'd, Tom felt more at ease, THE MORNING DREAM. "TWAS in the glad season of spring, Far hence to the westward I sail'd, And the fresh-blowing breeze never fail'd In the steerage a woman I saw, Such at least was the forin that she wore, Whose beauty impress'd me with awe, Ne'er taught me by woman before. She sat, and a shield at her side Shed light like a sun on the waves, And smiling divinely, she cried"I go to make freemen of slaves.". Then raising her voice to a strain The sweetest that ear ever heard, Thus swiftly dividing the flood, To a slave-cultur'd island we came, Where a demon her enemy stood Oppression his terrible name. In his hand, as the sign of his sway, A scourge hung with lashes he bore, And stood looking out for his prey From Africa's sorrowful shore. But soon as approaching the land, And the moment the monster expir'd, Awaking, how could I but muse At what such a dream should betide : But soon my ear caught the glad news, Which serv'd my weak thought for a guideThat Britannia, renown'd o'er the waves For the hatred she ever has shown To the black-scepter'd rulers of slaves, Resolves to have none of her own. THE NIGHTINGALE AND GLOW-WORM A NIGHTINGALE, that all day long Had cheer'd the village with his song, |