not fit to be entrusted with that of the state: and even those who have no vote, are nevertheless comprehended in our idea of the public mind,--nor is any man of sense and virtue, let his situation in a free country be what it may, to be deemed of _no account_. Upon his judgment, his voice (if not his vote,) his example, much may depend. The discovery of truth, the communication of useful knowledge, and the exemplary recommendation of virtuous conduct, may dignify a plebeian, as well as add lustre to a crown. Even a negro slave, amidst the horrors of a middle passage, and debased by every external circumstance of degradation and misery that the imagination can conceive, shall divide his meagre morsel[13] with the inhuman monster in distress, who stole him from his native country, and his nearest connexions, thereby returning all the GOOD in his power, for all the EVIL his merciless enemy could inflict, and giving an example of true benevolence of heart and real greatness of mind, unsurpassed in the history of civilized nations, and worthy of the best and purest of all religions:--“_if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink_[14].” Let no one, therefore, think too meanly of himself when called upon to assist in a good cause, seeing, that from the most abject state of human wretchedness a lesson may sometimes be learnt, and an influence imparted which the proudest philosophy need not blush to own. The abolition of the slave trade is an object of such high importance, and so nearly concerns every one who has a mind to comprehend, and a heart to feel, that no communication or assistance is too _small_, nor any too _great_, to be exerted upon this occasion.