ibe of Hamo
instantly; a way may be found, and no irretrievable evil ensue."

"Point it out, and be blessed, Yoomy."

"That is for Vivenza; but the head is dull, where the heart is cold."

"My lord," said Babbalanja, "you have startled us by your kingly
sympathy for suffering; say thou, then, in what wise manner it shall
be relieved."

"That is for Vivenza," said Media.

"Mohi, you are old: speak thou."

"Let Vivenza speak," said Mohi.

"Thus then we all agree; and weeping all but echo hard-hearted
Nulli. Tears are not swords and wrongs seem almost natural as rights.
For the righteous to suppress an evil, is sometimes harder than for
others to uphold it. Humanity cries out against this vast enormity:--
not one man knows a prudent remedy. Blame not, then, the North; and
wisely judge the South. Ere, as a nation, they became responsible,
this thing was planted in their midst. Such roots strike deep. Place
to-day those serfs in Dominora; and with them, all Vivenza's Past;--
and serfs, for many years, in Dominora, they would be. Easy is it to
stand afar and rail. All men are censors who have lungs. We can say,
the stars are wrongly marshaled. Blind men say the sun is blind. A
thousand muscles wag our tongues; though our tongues were housed, that
they might have a home. Whose is free from crime, let him cross
himself--but hold his cross upon his lips. That he is not bad, is not
of him. Potters' clay and wax are all, molded by hands invisible. The
soil decides the man. And, ere birth, man wills not to be born here or
there. These southern tribes have grown up with this thing; bond-women
were their nurses, and bondmen serve them still. Nor are all their
serfs such wretches as those we saw. Some seem happy: yet not as men.
Unmanned, they know not what they are. And though, of all the south,
Nulli must stand almost alone in his insensate creed; yet, to all
wrong-doers, custom backs the sense of wrong. And if to every Mardian,
conscience be the awarder of its own doom; then, of these tribes, many
shall be found exempted from the least penalty of this sin. But sin it
is, no less;--a blot, foul as the crater-pool of hell; it puts out the
sun at noon; it parches all fertility; and, conscience or no
conscience--ere he die--let every master who wrenches bond-babe from
mother, that the nipple tear; unwreathes the arms of sisters; or cuts
the holy unity in twain; till apart fall man and wife, like one
bleeding body cleft:--let t