Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/25

and expanded and grew, he knew that it would gradually up-root and cast out the weeds—he knew that selfish and evil passions could not endure its celestial atmosphere, and that the poisonous fruits and flowers of those Upas trees would one by one wither and drop off. This would be the case, both individually and nationally. As the individual received into his mind the law of love, and, aided by the Divine strength, strove to bring that law into action, and thus sought to do to others as he would wish others to do to him,— he could not wilfully hold his fellow-man in slavish bondage, feast indolently on the fruits of another's toil, and deprive his brother of that liberty which was to himself so dear: the law of love forbade it. Again, as a nation, or political society (which is, in fact, but an aggregate of individuals), became impressed with the same thought, and imbued with the same spirit, it would not willingly suffer any institution or order of things to exist within its bosom, which stood Opposed to that Divine principle. It would freely and of its own accord, and without any need of violence or assault from without, throw out from its midst those bonds, which, while they enchained others, were also fetters on itself, and clogs to its own prosperity and peace. It would do so, however, not merely from policy or from selfish calculation of effects and consequences, but from high principle. The national heart, impressed with the great law, "love thy neighbor as thyself," could not bear to see men within its borders oppressed and trodden down under the feet of fellow-men,—slaves to another's will, toiling day and night for another's advantage. The injustice of such a state of things would.