I own I was not convinced by this answer.  I determined, however, in compliance with their wishes, to examine the objection more minutely, and to see if I could overcome it more satisfactorily to my own mind.  With this view, I endeavoured to anticipate the course which such a history would take.  I saw clearly, in the first place, that there were times, for months together, when the commitee for the abolition of the Slave-trade was labouring without me, and when I myself for an equal space of time was labouring in distant parts of the kingdom without them.  Hence I perceived that, if my own exertions were left out, there would be repeated chasms in this history, and, indeed, that it could not be completed without the frequent mention of myself.  And I was willing to hope that this would be so obvious to the good sense of the reader, that if he should think me vain-glorious in the early part of it, he would afterwards, when he advanced in the perusal of it, acquit me of such a charge.  This consideration was the first, which removed my objection on this head.  That there can be no ground for any charge of ostentation, as far as the origin of this history is concerned, so I hope to convince him there can be none, by showing him in what light I have always viewed myself in connection with the commitee, to which I have had the honour to belong.

I have uniformly considered our commitee for the abolition of the Slave-trade, as we usually consider the human body, that is, as made up of a head and of various members, which had different offices to perform.  Thus, if one man was an eye, another was an ear, another an arm, and another a foot.  And here I may say, with great truth, that I believe no commitee was ever made up of persons, whose varied talents were better adapted to the work before them.  Viewing then the commitee in this light, and myself as in connection with it, I may deduce those truths, with which the analogy will furnish me.  And first, it will follow, that if every member has performed his office faithfully, though one may have done something more than another, yet no one of them in particular has any reason to boast.  With what propriety could the foot, though in the execution of its duty it had become weary, say to the finger, “Thou hast done less than I;” when the finger could reply with truth, “I have done all that has been given me to do?” It will follow also, that as every limb is essentially necessary for the completion of a perfect work; so in the case before us, every one was as necessary in his own office, or department, as another.  For what, for example, could I myself have done if I had not derived so much assistance from the commitee?  What could Mr. Wilberforce have done in parliament, if I, on the other hand, had not collected that great body of evidence, to which there was such a constant appeal?  And what could the commitee have done without the parliamentary aid of Mr. Wilberforce?  And in mentioning this necessity of distinct offices