s, always excepted. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was translated into German,
French, Italian and Spanish, and later appeared in almost every known
language. Written for the people at large, the book struck a chord of
universal human nature, and aroused the learned as well as the simple.
Soon letters began to pour in from the most distinguished men in foreign
countries. Charles Dickens wrote that he had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
with the deepest interest and sympathy. Lord Carlisle sent a message of
"deep and solemn thanks to Almighty God, who has enabled you to write
this book." Charles Kingsley expressed the judgment that the story would
take away the reproach of slavery from the great and growing nation. Men
like Shaftesbury, Arthur Helps, women like George Sand and Frederika
Bremer added their tribute of praise. Eighteen different publishing
houses in England were issuing the book at one time, and a million and a
half copies were sold in Great Britain.

Even Heinrich Heine, the poet, the cynic, who carried more power of
sarcasm and irony than any man of his generation, was so moved by the
book that he seems to have returned to the reading of the Bible, and to
Christ the Consoler, in the hour when night and death were falling.
"Astonishing! That after I have whirled about all my life, over all the
dance floors of philosophy, and yielded myself to all the orgies of the
intellect, and paid my addresses to all possible systems, without
satisfaction, like Messalina after a licentious night, I now find myself
on the same standpoint where poor Uncle Tom stands--on that of the
Bible. I kneel down by my black brother in the same prayer. What a
humiliation! With all my sense I have come no farther than the poor
ignorant negro who has just learned to spell. Poor Tom indeed seems to
have seen deeper things in the holy book than I, but I, who used to make
citations from Homer, now begin to quote the Bible as Uncle Tom does!"
Praise can go no farther than this, that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has shown
how the love of God can support a slave, under the lash, in the hour
when he is flogged to death, and fill his heart with pity while he
cries, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" It was
this that conquered the intellect of the scholar, and broke his heart,
and flooded his eyes with tears.

Perhaps the most striking testimony to the influence of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" grew out of a suggestion of Lord Shaftesbury's that the women of