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 committee 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 connexion with the committee, to which I
have had the honour to belong.

I have uniformly considered our committee 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
committee was ever made up of persons, whose varied talents were better
adapted to the work before them. Viewing then the committee in this
light, and myself as in connexion 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