application.  If so, why do they not take the praise, and give us the benefit of their wisdom, enterprise, and success?  Who, that has nothing to hide, practices concealment?  “He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God.”  Is this the way of slaveholders?  Darkness they court—­they will have darkness.  Doubtless “because their deeds are evil.”  Can we confide in methods for the benefit of our enslaved brethren, which it is death for us to examine?  What good ever came, what good can we expect, from deeds of darkness?

Did the influence of the masters contribute any thing in the West Indies to prepare the apprentices for enfranchisement?  Nay, verily.  All the world knows better.  They did what in them lay, to turn back the tide of blessings, which, through emancipation, was pouring in upon the famishing around them.  Are not the best minds and hearts in England now thoroughly convinced, that slavery, under no modification, can be a school for freedom?

We say such things to the many who allege, that slaves cannot at once be entrusted with the powers and privileges of self-government.  However this may be, they cannot be better qualified under the influence of slavery. That must be broken up from which their ignorance, and viciousness, and wretchedness proceeded.  That which can only do what it has always done, pollute and degrade, must not be employed to purify and elevate. The lower their character and condition, the louder, clearer, sterner, the just demand for immediate emancipation.  The plague-smitten sufferer can derive no benefit from breathing a little longer an infected atmosphere.

In thus referring to elemental principles—­in thus availing ourselves of the light of self-evident truths—­we bow to the authority and tread in the foot-prints of the great Teacher.  He chid those around him for refusing to make the same use of their reason in promoting their spiritual, as they made in promoting their temporal welfare.  He gives them distinctly to understand, that they need not go out of themselves to form a just estimation of their position, duties, and prospects, as standing in the presence of the Messiah.  “Why, EVEN OF YOURSELVES,” he demands of them, “judge ye not what is right?"[16] How could they, unless they had a clear light, and an infallible standard within them, whereby, amidst the relations they sustained and the interests they had to provide for, they might discriminate between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, what they ought to attempt and what they ought to eschew?  From this pointed, significant appeal of the Savior, it is clear and certain, that in human consciousness may be found self-evident truths, self-manifested principles; that every man, studying his own consciousness, is bound to recognize their presence and authority, and in sober earnest and good faith to apply them to the highest practical concerns of “life and godliness.”