[150] Biographie Universelle (Michaud): Art., _Vincent de Paul_. In this simple narrative what occasion for humiliation and encouragement! Well may we be humbled, that a nature so divine was subject to this cruel lot! Well may we be encouraged, as we contemplate the heights of usefulness and renown which this slave at last reached! CERVANTES A SLAVE. Here we may refer again to Cervantes, whose pen was dipped in his own dark experience. His "Life in Algiers" exhibits the horrors of the slave-market as it might be exhibited now. The public crier exposes for sale a father and mother with two children. They are to be sold separately, or, according to the language of our day, "in lots to suit purchasers." The father is resigned, confiding in God; the mother sobs; while the children, ignorant of the inhumanity of men, show an instinctive trust in the constant and wakeful protection of their parents,--now, alas! impotent to shield them from dire calamity. A merchant, inclining to purchase one of the children, and wishing to ascertain his bodily condition, makes him open his mouth. The child, ignorant of the destiny which awaits him, imagines that the purchaser is about to extract a tooth, and, assuring him that it does not ache, begs him to desist. The merchant, in other respects estimable enough, pays one hundred and thirty dollars for the youngest child, and the sale is completed. Thus a human being--one of those "little ones" who inspired the Saviour to say, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven"--is profanely treated as an article of merchandise, and torn from a mother's arms and a father's support. The hardening influence of custom has steeled the merchant into criminal insensibility to this violation of humanity and justice, this laceration of sacred ties, this degradation of God's image. The unconscious heartlessness of the slave-dealer and the anguish of his victims are depicted in the dialogue which ensues after the sale. MERCHANT. Come hither, child, 't is time to go to rest. JUAN. _Signor, I will not leave my mother here, To go with any one._ MOTHER. _Alas! my child, thou art no longer mine, But his who bought thee._ JUAN. _What! then, have you, mother, Forsaken me?_ MOTHER. _O Heavens! how cruel are ye!_ MERCHANT. _Come, hasten, boy._ JUAN. Will you go with me, brother? FRANCISCO. I cannot, Juan; 't is not in my power; May Heaven protect you, Juan! MOTHER. Oh, my child, My joy and my delight, God won't forget thee! JUAN. O father! mother! whither will they bear me Away from you? MOTHER. Permit me, worthy Signor, To speak a moment in my infant's ear? Grant me this small contentment; very soon I shall know nought but grief. MERCHANT. What you would say Say now; to-night is the last time. MOTHER.