496 TRUE STORY OF ABELARD AND ELOISA. 
human creatures, who otherwise would be sacrificed to the implaca- 
ble revenge of the victors. But this pretence has been refuted by an 
appeal to reason and fact : for if the negroes apprehended they 
should be cruelly put to death if they were not sent away, why, it 
is asked, do they manifest such reluctance and dread as they do, at 
being brought from their native country ? Smith, in his account 
p. 28, says, “ The Gambians abhor slavery, and will attempt every 
thing, though ever so desperate, to avoid it. And Thomas Phillips, 
in his account of a voyage he performed to the coast of Guinea, writes, 
“ They, the negroes, are so loth to leave their own country, that they 
have often leaped out of the canoe, boat, or ship, into the sea, and 
kept under water till they were drowmed, to avoid being taken up.’^ 
But had the effect even been otherwise, the above plea is urged Vt'ith 
an extremely bad grace, when it is notorious that the very wars, said 
to be productive of such cruelty, were fomented by the infamous art 
of the Europeans. 
True Story of Abelard and Eloisa. 
The following is extracted from a work recently published in Paris, 
entitled Melanges d'Hlstoire ei de Literature , — The first piece in the 
volume relates to Abelard and Eloisa. 
The common story of Abelard being employed as a tutor to Eloisa, 
and his being punished as soon as her uncle knew of her dishonour, 
is exceedingly remote from the tiuth. It is well known that Abelard 
was a person of the very highest eminence in philosophy and all 
the literature of his age ; that he became enamoured of Eloisa, and 
tempted the avarice of the old canon Hubert, with whom she lived, 
by offering him a large board, on condition of his takinghim into the 
house; that.the canon added to the bargain the further obligation of 
instructing his niece ; and that upooher proving with child, they both 
made their escape —she lying-in at his sister’s ; and he soon after 
returning, apparently without any loss of respect, to prosecute his 
studies, and continue his school of philosophy. 
Our author fixes the date of her delivery in the year 1118, when 
she was eighteen, and he thirty-eight years old. He soon found 
means to appease Hubert, by promising marriage ; but Eloisa, (as we 
know from one of those exquisite letters which Pope has imitated,) 
in a fit of romantic attachment, refused to be any thing more or less 
than his mistress — and would not listen to a project which, according 
to the custom of the age, would have put an end to the principal 
occupation of his life. A secret marriage was then agreed upon, to 
satisfy the uncle, with whom she continued to reside ; while the lover 
pursued his ordinary avocations — seeing her very seldom. At length 
some worthy nuns began to gossip, and to complain of the reverend 
canon’s complaisance. He assured them of the marriage, which the 
lovers denied ; and this produced a quarrel with Hubert, and a second 
elopement of his niece. Our author judiciously suggests, that the 
extreme unwillingness of Abelard to terminate all their difficulties by 
a public marriage, and his suffering Eloisa to sacrifice herself for his 
advantage, may shew that (as not unfrequently happens in such 
