This circumstance was not only agreeable, inasmuch as it
showed us, that there were others who felt with us for the injured
Africans, and who were willing to aid us in our designs, but it was
rendered still more so, when we were given to understand that the poem was
written by Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, and the preface to it by the late Dr.
Currie, who then lived in the same place. To find friends to our cause
rising up from a quarter, where we expected scarcely any thing but
opposition, was very consolatory and encouraging. As this poem was well
written, but cannot now be had, I shall give the introductory part of it,
which is particularly beautiful, to the perusal of the reader. It begins
thus,--
"Offspring of Love divine, Humanity!
To whom, his eldest born, th' Eternal gave
Dominion o'er the heart; and taught to touch
Its varied stops in sweetest unison;
And strike the string that from a kindred breast
Responsive vibrates! from the noisy haunts
Of mercantile confusion, where thy voice
Is heard not; from the meretricious glare
Of crowded theatres, where in thy place
Sits Sensibility, with, watry eye,
Dropping o'er Fancied woes her useless tear;--
Come thou, and weep with me substantial ills;
And execrate the wrongs, that Afric's sons,
Torn from their natal shore, and doom'd to bear
The yoke of servitude in foreign climes,
Sustain.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272