, were put off for awhile, but
returned again.

This young and noble heart was of a kind that could not comfort itself
so easily for a brother's sorrow as many do.

He says of himself: "In the course of the autumn of the same year, I
walked frequently into the woods that I might think of the subject in
solitude, and find relief to my mind there; but there the question
still recurred, 'are these things true?' Still the answer followed as
instantaneously, 'they are;' still the result accompanied it,--surely
some person should interfere. I began to envy those who had seats in
Parliament, riches, and widely-extended connections, which would
enable them to take up this cause.

"Finding scarcely any one, at the time, who thought of it, I was
turned frequently to myself, but here many difficulties arose. It
struck me, among others, that a young man only twenty-four years of
age could not have that solid judgment, or that knowledge of men,
manners, and things, which were requisite to qualify him to undertake
a task of such magnitude and importance; and with whom was I to unite?
I believed, also, that it looked so much like one of the feigned
labors of Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected, if I
proposed it."

He however resolved to do something for the cause by translating his
essay from Latin into English, enlarging and presenting it to the
public. Immediately on the publication of this essay, he discovered to
his astonishment and delight, that he was not the only one who had
been interested in this subject.

Being invited to the house of William Dillwyn, one of these friends to
the cause, he says: "How surprised was I to learn, in the course of
our conversation, of the labors of Granville Sharp, of the writings of
Ramsey, and of the controversy in which the latter was engaged, of all
which I had hitherto known nothing. How surprised was I to learn that
William Dillwyn had, himself, two years before, associated himself
with five others for the purpose of enlightening the public mind on
this great subject.

"How astonished was I to find, that a society had been formed in
America for the same object. These thoughts almost overpowered me. My
mind was overwhelmed by the thought, that I had been providentially
directed to this house; the finger of Providence was beginning to be
discernible, and that the day-star of African liberty was rising."

After this he associated with many friends of the cause, and at la