e parish, thus divided, became tolerable. The minister being no
longer bowed down by the temporal distresses of his people, applied
himself cheerfully to his own part of the weight. And it was
pleasant to see how those two persons, neither of them very strong,
or rich, or healthy, by thus kindly uniting together, were enabled
to bear the weight of a whole parish; though singly, either of them
must have sunk under the attempt. And I remember one great grief I
felt during my whole journey was, that I did not see more of this
union and concurring kindness--more of this acting in concert, by
which all the burdens might have been so easily divided. It troubled
me to observe, that of all the laws of the valley there was not one
more frequently broken than _the law of kindness_.

THE NEGROES.

I now spied a swarm of poor black men, women, and children, a
multitude which no man could number; these groaned, and toiled, and
sweated, and bled under far heavier loads than I have yet seen. But
for a while no man helped them; at length a few white travelers
were touched with the sorrowful sighing of those millions, and very
heartily did they put their hands to the burdens; but their number
was not quite equal to the work they had undertaken. I perceived,
however, that they never lost sight of these poor heavily-laden
wretches; though often repulsed, they returned again to the charge;
though discomfited, they renewed the effort, and some even pledged
themselves to an annual attempt till the project was accomplished;
and as the number of these generous helpers increased every year, I
felt a comfortable hope, that before all the blacks got out of the
valley, the whites would fairly divide the burden, and the loads
would be effectually lightened.

Among the travelers, I had occasion to remark, that those who most
kicked and struggled under their burdens, only made them so much the
heavier, for their shoulders became extremely galled by these vain
and ineffectual struggles. The load, if borne patiently, would in
the end have turned even to the advantage of the bearers, for so the
lord of the valley had kindly decreed; but as to these grumblers,
they had all the smart, and none of the benefit; they had the
present suffering without the future reward. But the thing which
made all these burdens seem so very heavy was, that in every one
without exception, there was a certain _inner packet_, which most of
the travelers took pains to conc