THE ANTIQUARIAN. 221 



But it is not enoui^h that I may have succeeded in 

 working" up the detached antiquarian notices, supplied 

 me as above stated, into a lecture somewhat more 

 worthy of your attention than was perhaps anticipated 

 of it; not enoug-h, unless some instructive moral 

 combine with, and grow out of, the amusement I have 

 essayed to g-ive. The natural dignity of the human 

 mind appears never more plain than when we see its 

 energies directed to objects all too vast and unwieldy, 

 at least in appearance so, for the lot and circumstance 

 wherein it has been by providence cast: — who had 

 thought that, while seated on his humble shop-board, 

 the poor American tailor's mind brooded on a scheme 

 that was to strike the death blow to slavery? Like 

 Ulysses of old he seems to strip himself of his sordid 

 attire, to come forth the asserter and avenger of Afri- 

 can freedom. But lest this solitary, and splendid as 

 it is solitary, instance of moral heroism in this too 

 meanly held class, tempt some ambitious tailoring to 

 look down on other crafts not similarly disting-uished, 

 1 would have him reflect that we are not decreeing-, 

 as the council of Constance decreed ef episcopacy — 



** If any one presume to say that a tailor may have 

 his failings let him be accursed'^ — 



Not so: in every class of men there is something* 

 to praise and something* to blame ; just as in every 

 rank and conditi^on of those fair being-s that delight^ 

 and adorn, and exalt life, there may be something-, 

 trifles for us to wink at, and very excellent things to 

 admire. 



