1849-52.] KOL OBENG—LA KE 'NGAMI. 1 1 5 



addressed to him before they set out by Mrs. Moffat, 

 his mother-in-law, remonstrating in the strongest terms 

 against his plan of taking his wife with him ; reminding 

 him of the death of the child, and other sad occurrences 

 of last year ; and, in the name of everything that was 

 just, kind, and even decent, beseeching him to abandon 

 an arrano-ement which all the world would condemn. 

 Another letter from the same writer informed him that 

 much prayer had been offered that, if the arrangements 

 were not in accordance with Christian propriety, he might 

 in great mercy be prevented by some dispensation of 

 Providence from carrying them out. Mrs. Moffat was a 

 woman of the highest gifts and character, and full of 

 admiration for Livingstone. The insertion of these letters 

 in his Journal shows that, in carrying out his plan, the 

 objections to which it was liable were before his mind in 

 the strongest conceivable form. No man who knows 

 what Livingstone was will imagine for a moment that 

 he had not the most tender regard for the health, the 

 comfort, and the feelings of his wife ; in matters of deli- 

 cacy he had the most scrupulous regard to propriety ; his 

 resolution to take her with him must, therefore, have 

 sprung from something far stronger than even his affec- 

 tion for her. What was this stronger force ? 



It was his inviolable sense of duty, and his indefeas- 

 ible conviction that his Father in heaven would not 

 forsake him whilst pursuing a course in obedience to His 

 will, and designed to advance the welfare of His children. 

 As this furnishes the key to Livingstone's future life, and 

 the answer to one of the most serious objections ever 

 brought against it, it is right to spend a little time in 

 elucidating the principles by which he was guided. 



There was a saying of the late Sir Herbert Edwardes 

 which he highly valued : " He who has to act on his own 

 responsibility is a slave if he does not act on his own 

 judgment." Acting on this maxim, he must set aside 



