1799-] 
haétta; and in 1769, he was employed by 
the government in the working of the 
copper mines at Atvédaberg. He was 
afterwards engaged in the direction of va- 
rious eftablifiments, and I have heard 
him mention his having had frequent per-, ~ 
fonal intercourfe with the late king of 
Sweden on thofe fubjeéts. But thele were 
employments infufficient to fatisfy a mind 
glowing, like that of Wadftrom, for a 
wider {phere of ufefulnefs, and benevo- 
lence. The various fchemes by which, 
through a long life devoted to the caufe of 
philanthropy, he purpofed to promote 
this great aim of his exiltence, were indeed 
fometimes ‘romantic, and perhaps fome- 
times delufive. His heart feemed more 
enlarged than his underftanding—his feel- 
ings were always in the right, but his 
judgment fometimes erred; and he had a 
kind of trufting fimplicity in his nature, 
which made him often the dupe of his 
own credulity. But let us not blame too 
feverely, this mifplaced reliance on others ; 
there is no danger of the example becom- 
ing contagious; let us rather amidit that 
egotilm to which the prefent modes of fo- 
ciety give rife, that wakeful fufpicion 
which puts every heart in a pofture of de- 
fence, that careful vigilance with which 
the old inculcate, and the young acquire, 
the leffons of felfith prudence, let us turn 
for relief to one mind, whofe weaknefles 
were only modifications of virtue, the fail- 
ings of unguarded humanity, the exceflive 
confidence of too liberal a fpirit, the un- 
circumferibed benevolence of too warm 
an heart. 
No proje&t could be more fublime than 
that which occupied the greater part of 
‘the life of Wadftrom; which was the 
emancipation and civilization of that nu- 
merous portion of the human race inhabit- 
ing the vaft continent of Africa. With 
the view of obtaining authentic informa- 
tion refpecting the fituation of the natives 
of Africa, and of ftudying their dispofi- 
tions, charagters, and manners, he under- 
took a voyage to that continent, where he 
remained two years. I have indeed, fome- 
times heard this * circumnavigation of 
philanthropy” afcribed to other motives 
than thofe of pure benevolence, As Ponce 
de Leon and his companions roved amidit 
the Lucayo Iflands, not merely aninated 
by the general fpirit of difcovery, but in 
the vifionary fearch of a fountain of {uch 
wonderful virtue as to renew the youth, 
and recall the vigour of every perfon who 
bathed in its waters; fo Wadftrom’s view 
in his expedition to. Africa has been re- 
prefented not to have been the emancipa- 
Memoirs of the Life of Charles Berns Wadfirom. 
463 
tion of the flaves, but the difcovery of the 
New Jerufalem, which it feems, in il- 
luminated charts of Swedenborg, lies 
fomewhere concealed, amidft thofe hither- 
to unexplored regions. But it is certain 
that Wadilrom, though perhaps courteous 
to fome errors of that travelled apoftle, 
never carried his complaiance fo far as to 
undertake a voyage to Africa in his fer- 
vice. ‘That voyage was a crufade of hu- 
manity ; the liberty of the Africans was 
the favorite projeét of Wadftrom’s mind, 
and he lived to enjoy the molt noble re- 
compenfe of his labours in their caufe. 
‘Too long condemned to bear the {corn of 
thofe commercial fpeculators in blood, 
who {mile at the folly of fympathy, and 
deride the energies of benevolence, con- 
demned to fuffer the torment of meditating 
on calamities which he was unable to re- 
lieve, with what exulting triumph did he 
contemplate the fetters of the flave torn off 
in the French colonies, and the deftinies 
of that portion of our {pecies which feemed 
only born to. fuffer, for ever linked with 
thofe of that glorious republic whofe li- 
bertyis durable as its power!—With what 
tran{port did he of late, behold France, ~ 
after having broken the fetters-of the 
Africans in diftant regions, preparing to 
teach them on their native foil, the noble 
lefions of enlightened freedom! he knew 
that the yearly caravan which tra- 
vels from Egypt to-Abyflinia with fplen- 
did toys, and hears back in exchange, 
over the far-ftretched defart, its load of 
flaves, had, the pat autumn, conveyed te 
thefe diltant regions a new and aftonifhing 
hiftury of Europeans; that for the frit 
time, that name had been pronounced 
in Africa without horror, and unconneét- 
ed with images of defpair. For the 
firft time Europeans had been called 
not the deftroyers, but the deliver- 
ers of mankind ; and tidings had been 
proclaimed, not of free-men fettered, but 
of flaves made free, of nations emancipa- 
ted by that hero, whofe fublime genius, 
borrowing no force from age, and no 
fuccour from experience, has marked its 
illuftrious career by no gradations, but 
foared at once to the pinnacle of glory— 
that hero who has ever victory in his van, 
and liberty ia his rear! Yes, our philan- 
thropic enthunatt muft have difcerned 
with tranfport, that liberty, irrefftible in 
its progrels as the majeftic waters of the 
Nile, when they overflow their banks and 
rafh over the land, and, benevolent in its 
effects, as that frnétifying ftream which 
{preads only bleflings in its courfe ; liberty 
would foon diffufe gver the African con- 
tinent 
