ater, used the same means to promulgate
his conception of Christian life. While English narrative fiction was
still in its first youth, Mrs. Behn protested against the evils of the
slave trade through the medium of a story which may be considered a
forerunner of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

To interest the public in a distant country or an abstract principle,
the novel is the most effective literary means. A treatise on the slave
trade by Mrs. Behn, however strong and truthful, would have met with
the little attention which is accorded to the sufferings of a distant
and unknown people. But the novel has the advantage over the treatise,
that it deals with the particular and not the general, with the
individual and not the nation. It can place before the reader a limited
number of persons; it can interest his mind and heart in their
characters, lives, and fate; and by subjecting them to the horrors of
the evil to be depicted, excite through commiseration for their
sufferings a hatred of the cause which inflicted them. To such a use
the novel has often been put, at too frequent a sacrifice of its
artistic merit. To excite indignation against the results of the slave
trade, Mrs. Behn took the special instance of Oroonoko. She endowed the
African slave with beauty of person and nobility of character. She gave
him tastes and qualities of a kind to attract the interest of a
European reader. She added a description of his wife Imoinda, dwelling
on the details of her beauty and charms. By a passionate relation of
the amatory scenes which occurred between Oroonoko and his wife, she
touched a key particularly calculated to excite contemporary English
sympathy. Finally, by telling the story of the cruel wrongs inflicted
on the slaves, she aroused a natural indignation against the system
which could entail such evil results.

The story itself is briefly as follows. Oroonoko was a brave young
chief, the grandson of a king whose dominions lay on the coast of
Africa. He had distinguished himself in war, and already commanded all
the forces of his grandfather's kingdom. Hitherto rather unsusceptible
to female charms, he became deeply enamored of Imoinda, on returning
victorious from a great war. Unfortunately the king noticed Imoinda at
the same time, and had her brought to his palace as his concubine.
According to the rules of the court, this would separate the lovers
forever. Oroonoko in desperation made his way to Imoinda's chamber in
the