verlastingly apish and malicious! Ho, ho!
thou noble friend of humanity!" he exclaimed, striding up and down the
room, "Marry thy daughter to a nigger, do that! do that! Be in terror,
every moment, that he will tear her limb from joint. Hug a black
grandchild! do that, noble friend of humanity! then come to me and
harangue about the equality of the black and the white race!"

Sonnenkamp had clenched his fists, as if he were clutching an
antagonist by the throat; his eyes flashed, his lips opened, and his
jaws snapped together like a tiger leaping upon his prey. He now
suddenly placed his hand upon his breast, as if making a powerful
effort to hold himself in control.

"You, Herr Captain, and the poet, have taken me somewhat by surprise,"
he said, with a constrained smile; and then he again repeated that Eric
had gone to the root of the matter. That a white girl could not become
the wife of a nigger was no prejudice, but a law of nature.

"I thank you," he said in conclusion, turning once more towards Eric;
"you have given me a great deal to think about."

The men looked at each other in astonishment, and the Doctor added, in
a timid way very foreign from his usual manner, that he must give his
assent to this on physiological grounds, for it was a well-known fact
that mixed races, in the third generation, became sterile. A separation
of the races, however, does not exclude human rights, any more than it
excluded human duties; and religion laid them upon all alike.

While saying this he turned towards the Priest, who felt himself called
upon to state that the negroes were susceptible of religious
conviction, and capable of receiving religious instruction, and that
this secured to them the full rights of men.

"Indeed!" exclaimed Sonnenkamp. "Is that the fact? Why then did not the
Church ordain the removal of slavery?"

"Because the Church," replied the Priest quietly, "has nothing to do
with ordaining anything of the kind. The Church directs itself to the
human soul, and prepares it for the heavenly kingdom. In what social
condition the body of man, the outside covering of this soul, may be,
we have nothing to do with ordaining or determining. Neither slavery
nor freedom is a hindrance to the divine life. Our Lord and Master
called the souls of the Jews to enter into the kingdom of heaven whilst
they were Roman citizens, and under subjection. He called all nations
through his apostles, and did not stop to ask about