LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
255 
once loose upon society^ would he more than dan« 
geronSj it would he certain destruction. 
Yet the institution is doomed. Its end ap- 
proaches surely^ perhaps swiftly. Its fall cannot 
hut he ardently desired hy every right-thinking 
mindj for it is one begun, pursued and perpetuated 
in iniquity and cruelty ; hut when it comes, it can 
hardly he other than a terrible convulsion. I never 
felt this so strongly, as since I have had personal 
and close observation of the elements of the strife, 
the parties at issue. In spite' of the beauty and 
grandeur of the country, the lucrative remuneration 
which a person of education receives for his talents 
and time, and the rich and almost virgin field for 
the pursuit of natural history (no small temptation 
to me),— I feel slavery alone- to be so enormous 
an evil, that I could not live here : I am already 
hastening to he gone. 
