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gotten with them. In j^eneral, their existence appears 

 to participate n)ore of sens.-nion than reflection. To 

 this must i>e ascrilied their disposition to sleep when 

 ahstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in la- 

 bour. An animal whose hodj^ is at rest, and who does 

 not reflect, must be disi)osed to sleep of course. Com- 

 paring]^ them by their faculties of memory, reason, and 

 imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are 

 equal to the whites ; in reason nuich inferior, as I think 

 one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and com- 

 prehending^ the investiirations of FiUclid ; and that in 

 imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous. It 

 would he unfair to follow them to Africa for this inves- 

 tigation. We will consider them here, on the same 

 stase with the whites, and where the facts are not apo- 

 cryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It will 

 be riglit to make great allowances for the difference of 

 condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere 

 in which they move. Many nullions of them have heen 

 brought to, and born inxAmerica. Most of them indeed 

 have been confined to tillage, to their own hofnes, and 

 their own society : yet many have been so situated, 

 that the}^ might have availed themselves of the conver- 

 sation of their masters; many have been brought up 

 to the handicraft arts, and from that circumstance have 

 always been associated with the whites. Some have 

 been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries 

 where the arts and sciences are cultivated to a consid- 

 erable degree, and have had before their eyes samples 

 of the best works from abroad. The Indians, with no 

 advantages of this kind, will often carve figures on their 

 pi()es not destitute of design and merit. They will 

 crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to 

 prove the existence ofagerm in their minds which only 

 wants cultivation. They astonish you with strokes of 

 the most sublime oratory ; such as prove their reason 

 and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and 

 elevated. But never yet could I find that a black had 

 uttered a thought above the level of plain narration ; 

 never saw even an elementary trait of painting or sculp- 



