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9. He passes from the Old to the New Testament, and states the inconsistency of slavery with Christ's command to do to others as we would they should do to us.

10. In him we see talents without much literacy cultivation; and to which a good education would have given great advantage. His writings are not very methodological, but they speak the language of a feeling heart, and are read with interest by those who are averse to slavery.

A Short Account of Phillis Wheatley.

1. Although the state of Massachusetts never was so deeply involved in the African slave trade as most the other states, yet before the war which separated the United States of America from Great Britain, and gave us the title of a free and independent nation, there were many of the poor Africans brought into their ports and sold for slaves.

2. In the year 1761, a little girl about 7 or 8 years old was stolen from her parents in Africa, and being put on board a ship was brought to Boston, where she was sold for a slave to John Wheathley, a respectable inhabitant of that town. Her master giving her the name of Phillis, and she assuming that of her master, she was of course called Phillis Wheatley.

3. Being of an active disposition, and very attentive and industrious, she soon learned the English language, and in about sixteen months so perfectly, that she could read any of the most difficult parts of the Scriptures, to the great astonishment of those who heard her. And this she learned without any school instruction except what was taught her in the family.

4. The art of writing she obtained by her own industry and curiosity, and in so short a time that in the year 1765, when she was not more than twelve years of age, she was capable of writing letters to her friends

on various subjects. She also wrote to several persons in high stations. In one of her communications to the Earl of Dartmouth, on the subject of Freedom, she has the following lines:

"Should you, my lord, while you pursue my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood -
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate,
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul, and by no misery mov'd,
That from a father seized the babe belov'd.
Such, such my case-and can I then but pray,
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?"

5. In her leisure moments she often indulged herself in writing poetry, and a small volume of her composition was published in 1773, when she was about nineteen years of age, attested by the Governor of Massachusetts, and a number of the most respectable inhabitants of Boston, in the following language:

6. "We, whose names are under written, do assure the world that the Poems specified in the following pages were, (as we verily believe,) written by Phillis, a young negro girl, who was but a few years since brought an uncultivated barbarian from Africa; and has ever since been, and now is, under the disadvantage of serving as a slave in a family in this town. She has been examined by some of the best judges, and is thought qualified to write them."

7. Her master says-"Having a great inclination to learn the Latin language, she has made some progress in it."*

* - Most of her poetical productions have a religious or moral cast: all breathe a soft and sentimental feeling. Twelve relate to the death of friends. Others on the works of Providence ; on virtue, humanity, and freedom; with one to a young painter of her own color. On seeing his works, she vented her grief for the sorrows of her countrymen, in a pathetic strain.

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