Already are signs of change. In common speech, as well as in writing, among slave-masters, the bondman is no longer called _slave_, but _servant_,--thus, by soft substitution, concealing and condemning the true relation. Newspapers, even in the land of bondage, blush at the hunt of men by bloodhounds,--thus protesting against an unquestionable incident of Slavery. Other signs appear in the added comfort of the slave,--in the enlarged attention to his wants,--in the experiments now beginning, by which the slave is enabled to share in the profits of his labor, and thus finally secure his freedom,--and, above all, in the consciousness among slave-masters that they dwell now, as never before, under the keen observation of an ever-wakeful Public Opinion, quickened by an ever-wakeful Public Press. Nor is this all. Only lately propositions were introduced into the Legislatures of different States, and countenanced by Governors, to mitigate the existing Law of Slavery; and almost while speaking, I have received drafts of two different memorials, one to the Legislature of Virginia, and the other to that of North Carolina, asking for the slave three things, which it will be monstrous to refuse, but which, if conceded, will take from Slavery its existing character: I mean, _first_, the protection of the marriage relation; _secondly_, the protection of the parental relation; and, _thirdly_, the privilege of knowledge. Grant these, and the girdled Upas tree soon must die. Sir, amidst these tokens of present success, and the auguries of the future, I am not disturbed by complaints of seeming damage. “Though it consume our own dwelling, who does not venerate fire, without which human life can hardly exist on earth?” says the Hindoo proverb; and the time is even now at hand, when the Antislavery Enterprise, which is the very fire of Freedom, with all its incidental excesses and excitements, will be hailed with similar regard. III. It remains to show, in the _third_ place, that the Antislavery Enterprise, which stands before you at once necessary and practicable, is commended by inherent DIGNITY. Here reasons are obvious and unanswerable.