ake 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 labours of
Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On
ruminating, however, on the subject, I found one thing at least
practicable, and that this also was in my power. I could translate my
Latin dissertation. I could enlarge it usefully. I could see how the
public received it, or how far they were likely to favour any serious
measures, which should have a tendency to produce the abolition of the
Slave Trade. Upon this then I determined; and in the middle of the month
of November 1785, I began my work.

By the middle of January, I had finished half of it, though I had made
considerable additions. I now thought of engaging with some bookseller
to print it when finished. For this purpose I called upon Mr. Cadell, in
the Strand, and consulted him about it. He said that as the original
essay had been honoured by the University of Cambridge with the first
prize, this circumstance would insure it a respectable circulation among
persons of taste. I own I was not much pleased with his opinion. I
wished the essay to find its way among useful people, and among such as
would act and think with me. Accordingly I left Mr. Cadell, after having
thanked him for his civility, and determined, as I thought I had time
sufficient before dinner, to call upon a friend in the city. In going
past the Royal Exchange, Mr. Joseph Hancock, one of the religious
society of the Quakers, and with whose family my own had been long
united in friendship, suddenly met me. He first accosted me by saying
that I was the person whom he was wishing to see. He then asked me why I
had not published my prize essay. I asked him in return what had made
him think of that subject in particular. He replied that his own society
had long taken it up as a religious body, and individuals among them
were wishing to find me out. I asked him who. He answered, James
Phillips, a bookseller, in Georgeyard, Lombard-street, and William
Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, and others. Having but little time to spare, I
desired him to introduce me to one of them. In a few minutes he took me
to James Phillips, who was then the only one of them in town; by whose
conversation I was so much interested and encouraged, that without any
further hesitation I offered him the publication of my work. This
accidental introduction of me to Jam