But, lo, we are not of thy council. We were not called when the foundations of eternity were laid. We are, truly, all very small beings. Our virtues, even purity, may lead in error. May not our best intentions lead down to wo? “It is a fact worthy of serious thought, and full of solemn instruction, that many of the worst errors have grown out of the religious tendencies of the mind. So necessary is it to keep watch over our whole nature, to subject the highest sentiments to the calm, conscientious reason. Men, starting from the idea of God, have been so dazzled by it, as to forget or misinterpret the universe.” _Channing_, vol. i. p. 14. ------------------ LESSON II. Volume ii. page 14, Dr. Channing says— “1. I shall show that man cannot be justly held and used as property. “2. I shall show that man has sacred rights, the gifts of God, and inseparable from human nature, of which slavery is the infraction. “3. I shall offer some explanations to prevent misapplication of these principles. “4. I shall unfold the evils of slavery. “5. I shall consider the argument which the Scriptures are thought to furnish in favour of slavery. “6. I shall offer some remarks on the means of removing it. “7. I shall offer some remarks on abolitionism. “8. I shall conclude with a few reflections on the duties belonging to the times.” In support of the first proposition, to wit, “I will show that man cannot be justly held and used as property,” the doctor has advanced seven arguments. He says, page 18—“It is plain, that, if one man may be held as property, then every other man may be so held.” * * * “Now let every reader ask himself this plain question: Could I, can I, be rightfully seized, and made an article of property,” &c. Page 19: “And if this impression be delusion, on what single moral conviction can we rely? * * * The consciousness of indestructible rights is a part of our moral being. The consciousness of our humanity involves the persuasion that we cannot be owned as a tree or brute. As men, we cannot justly be made slaves. Then no man can be rightfully enslaved.” The first idea we find, touching property, is in _Gen._ i. 26: “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Verse 28th: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”