murmur, "resist not evil." They have their | possible liberation of captives? No; for he reward. come sons of God," he struck at the root of Slavery; he set free not only men, but Man. had to regenerate the inward world before But, after all, the inconsistency of the the political forms of society could be regenEnglish public, and the audacity of our own erated. He proclaimed a kingdom in which journals, are of little moment in comparison all men were equal, and left it to dislodge with the uncertainty which is being diffused Slavery by its own inherent force. Neither through English thought as to the real atti- he nor St. Paul preached an external crutude of the Divine teaching about Slavery. sade against institutions; simply because the Is this new gospel of the Christianity of forces were not yet ripe which could produce Slavery, are these good tidings that every better institutions. But he who spoke in slave is bound by Christ's law to be a slave his first lesson to his fellow-townsmen of that forever, rather than set himself free without acceptable year of the Lord in which he the consent of his masters, true or not? For should preach the "Gospel to the poor, deourselves we do not hesitate to say that no liverance to the captives, recovery of sight religious scepticism of the present day seems to the blind, and liberty to them that are to us so monstrous and so atheistic as this; bruised," and who said, "this day is this nay, that if the Gospel were weighted with scripture fulfilled in your ears," cannot be such a condition, it would be one that nei- said by honest men to have lent even a ther sign nor miracle could prove. It is, shadow of sanction to the principle of Slavspeaking relatively, of infinitely little impor-ery. In giving to all men "power to betance whether we live under an aristocracy or a democracy, compared with whether we live under a God who loves freedom, or a Devil who loves Slavery. But, we confess, nothing seems to us more astounding than the assertion that the Divine revelation is indifferent on the matter. No doubt, the Divine education of the Hebrew people never attempted to ignore the actual historical condition of the nation. It recognized, under the strictest possible limitations, the fact of Slavery, at an era when no other people had learned to impose any limitation on the power of the master at all. But one of the deepest principles of that political education was the recognition of the rights of the slave, of his claim to eventual freedom, of his claim to that spiritual equality in the sight of God which is the root of political freedom-in one word, of his full humanity. The Israelite is reminded, with an emphasis that recurs with a sort of Divine monotony, that for this express purpose "he was a bondsman in the land of Egypt," that he might never neglect the rights of bondsmen or ignore their spiritual freedom. As the nation rises in the scale of civilization, this teaching rises into a solemn teaching that God is the enemy of all Slavery. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen,-to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" The identification of the Divine Will with human freedom is the drift of all the prophetic teaching, and if conquest and serfdom were the constant discipline of the Israelites, it was to teach them by the slavery of the body, the terrible significance of the slavery of the spirit; it was to break the inner yoke that the outer was imposed. But what, it will be said, did Christ say to the revolutionary spirit? Did he instigate and justify polítical insurrection or the Still, it may be said, if Slavery is tolerated provisionally at any era or in any circumstances by the spirit of Divine revelation, on the plea that the character must be prepared for freedom before the outward condition is changed, how can the sudden and abrupt stroke of an emancipation policy which lifts at once from abject servitude to absolute freedom, be justified? The reply is obvious. If a policy like the Divine policy were possible in America, it would be the true one,a gradual passage through serfdom to full freedom,-a complete abolition of all the wickedness of a system which separates families, renders marriage impossible, and education a crime,-a substitution of laws protecting the slave, enforcing his education, admitting him to property-rights, and so forth, by the usual stages of a steadily emancipating policy, to perfect freedom. But this is not possible. The protegés of the English people are fighting for the maintenance and extension of a form of Slavery to which the Hebrew Slavery was freedom,-of a class of laws as much more wicked than the worst slavery laws of the ancient world, as modern science is superior to the science of the ancient world,-of a species of propagandism which aims at putting the true knowledge of God further and further out of the slave's reach. The alternative lies, as all Englishmen know, not between gradual emancipation and sudden emancipation, but between sudden emancipation and a system of Slavery growing blacker and blacker unto the perfect night. This is the system for which the authority of Christ is claimed by our modern Pharisees, who shudder with exquisite tenderness at a "fratricidal war" which only kills the body, while they prove on Christian principles that centuries of spirit NEWS FROM THE GORILLA COUNTRY. ual fratricide and suicide-for this sort of fratricide involves suicide-would be clearly sanctioned by the Gospel of Christ, the Providence of God, and the genius of an aristocratic people. From The Athenæum. NEWS FROM THE GORILLA COUNTRY. Loanda, September 7, 1862. HAVING spent five active months in the Gorilla Country, I am in a position to state that M. Du Chaillu has shot neither leopards, buffaloes, nor gorillas; that the gorilla does not beat his breast like a drum; that the kúlu-kamba does not utter the cry of kooloo, or anything like it; that the young gorilla in captivity is not savage; and that while M. Du Chaillu affects to have been "a poor fever-stricken wretch!" at Camma (June 1st, 1859), he was really residing in robust health at the Gaboon. Mongilomba, who is not a native hunter at all, and who was in my service three months as steward and natural-history assistant, duped Mr. R. B. Walker in asserting that M. Du Chaillu had killed two gorillas; nor did he ever accompany that gentleman except in the above capacity. 287 missed or wounded, he will charge. His charge, from which the natives often escape, being themselves nimble as apes, is made on all-fours. Etia, whose left hand has been severely crippled, informed me that the gorilla seized his wrist with his hind foot, and dragged his hand into his mouth as he would have done a bunch of plantains. Two things are at least certain, that the gorilla is less feared than the leopard; and the story of the man killed by, a gorilla at Camma is a complete fabrication. Traditional accounts of such an incident exist, but nothing of the kind has happened within the memory of man. The tail of the gorilla assuming a boxing attitude, and beating his breast like a drum, originated from Quenhunters from the Muni on the north, to the gueza, and was unanimously refuted by all Fernand Vaz on the south. Thus in an obscure African village an old savage could tell a lie, which has blazed through Europe. The Apingi country, which is the Ultima Thule of M. Du Chaillu's explorations, is distant from Gumbi (Ngumbi) four footdays' journey, in a southerly direction. In tracing the course of the Rembo, however, he adopted a longer route. His description of the Fans (Bafanh) whom he visited in company with Mr. Mackey, of Corisco, is very good. In ascending the Gaboon to its rapids in the bosom of the Sierra del Crystal, I advanced some distance hospitable, but cannibals undoubtedly, as into their country, and found them gentle, one of them confessed to me. Even the account of their ghoul-like propensities is in one case supported by evidence which I find it impossible to disbelieve. From the Balengi of the Muni, from the Shekani and Fans of the Gaboon, from the Commi Bakělě, etc., of the Fernand Vaz, upon the banks of which rivers I have hunted (always unsuccessfully) gorillas. Examining those only who were hunters, and reserving alone such evidence as was corroborative, I This book, so strange a mélange of truth have gleaned the following facts respecting and fiction, was prepared by a gentleman this ape of contention. The gorilla dwells well known in the New York literary world, only in the densest parts of the forests; he from copious notes made by M. Du Chaillu feeds exclusively on vegetable matter, and when engaged in these expeditions. And I one kind of grass is a sure indication of his must do the latter the justice to confess, that proximity; at noon and eve he approaches from the same sources which afforded me the village plantations for the sake of the proofs of his impostures, I learn that he is a plantains, occasionally uttering a wild kind good marksman; possessed of no common of cry, but which in rage (as imitated by courage and endurance; that he has suffered Etia) becomes a quick sharp bark. By day, many privations and misfortunes of which he moves along the ground on all-fours (as, he has said nothing; that his character as a having crawled for hours on their tracks, I trader has been unjustly blemished; that his can testify), sometimes ascending the trees. labors as a naturalist have been very remarkBy night, he chooses a large tree to sleep in. able; and that during his residence in Africa He is exceedingly wary and keen of scent. he won the affection of the natives and the When the female is pregnant, he builds a esteem of those who most merit to be esnest (as do also the kúlu-kamba and the teemed-the missionaries. And a fellowchimpanzee), where she is delivered, and laborer, though a humble one, may be perwhich is then abandoned. These nests, sev-mitted to regret that, actuated by a foolish eral of which I have seen, are simply rude vanity or by ill-advice he should have atlayers of dry sticks, and of small branches tempted to add artificial flowers to a wreath evidently torn off the live tree by the hand. of laurels which he had fairly and hardly With regard to his ferocity, as a rule, when earned. W. WINWOOD READE. THE RISING OF THE AFRITE. SOME months ago, appeared on a page of Vanity Fair, a picture with this title. It is in allusion to the three fishermen in the Arabian Nights, who drew out of the sea a bottle closed by Solomon's Seal; upon opening which there arose from it a great cloud of smoke, which gradually assumed the form of one of the Genii. the right of the door. It will repay long and careful study. The gigantic figures, which are typical of the Powers, stand with their feet fixed in the continent, and are putting forth all their strength in a deathstruggle. They are armed as gladiators, with the short double-edged sword and oval crest, and a cotton boll surrounded by the crown. The crest of the North is an eagle with wings spread. The figure of the king Davis, Yancey, and Toombs, are the fishermen; their bottle is labelled "Secession;" is very remarkable. It is that of a Hercules and the Genius appears as a gigantic black man soaring aloft; his face of passionate sternness raised to heaven, and in each hand a many-headed serpent. The fishermen fall back in dismay. The work appeared in a comic paper, but the effect is sublime. for strength, but every evil passion has put its mark upon the face, and the muscles are visibly of a different quality from those of the North and draw their strength from a different breeding. The hair and beard of the figure have the thick fleeciness of raw cotton, and add to the monstrous charac We recommend to Messrs. Harpers to re-ter of the face. The two shields are print this wood engraving in their weekly paper, as apropos to the President's Proclamation; or to issue it separately. It would be hung up in many houses, as it now is be fore us. The design is by" Stephens" (of whom we have no other knowledge) and does him great honor. May we advise him to paint it on a scale which shall show the black man at least the size of life. It would deserve a place in Faneuil Hall, as a sequel and companion to the painting now there, representing Webster's reply to Hayne, in which the arch traitor, John Cataline Calhoun (as the Globe characterized him), lowers upon the listening Senate. There is no "Conservative" objection to Stephen's painting, which does not as much apply to the other. Both are "Radical " and patriotic. locked together, so that the struggle is evidently to be final, but the king is in vain trying to force a passage for his weapon beyond the shield which bears the figure of Justice. The volcano, the distant thrones, with the device on their basis and the figures which occupy them, must appeal to every thinking man and carry their own lesson. The whole design is full of meaning, which any one may study out who will approach it in the right spirit, and there are few who can grasp all the details at one study even then.-Transcript. A NEW GROUP BY ROGERS was exhibited at the last Artists' Reception in New York. "It represents a trio of Union refugees attempting to escape the horrors of the Southern inquisition, and hastening their step towards the land of the free. The father, a sturdy backwoodsman, and the very picture of a determined patriot, sustains the form of a fragile but beautiful woman, his "wife, to whose skirt clings a little boy tremblingly alive to the danger seen and unseen of his new situation. Although scarcely finished as to its minor details, the group is quite effective and spirited, and illustrates most forcibly a phase of the evils of secession which thus far has formed a voice chiefly in the thrilling narratives of Brownlow, Hamilton, and other expatriated Union men of the South." After writing this, we examined another ornament of our study called " To-Day." It is from Vanity Fair of 24 Nov., 1860, and represents the Prodigal Son asking for his share. This was before he undertook to set the house on fire. It bears the same designer's name, and should be sent to the South in company with the other. A SYMBOLIC PICTURE. Copies of the statuette of Booth in HamPEOPLE who are walking in Washington the same sculptor, are at Williams and Evlet of which we have repeatedly spoken, by Street are advised to stop at the window of erett's. The attitude and expression are Messrs. Williams and Everett and look at a true to the life, and faithfully represent one photograph, from a drawing representing of the telling "points" in the tragedian's King Cotton and the North, which stands to impersonation.-Transcript. 316 5. Fifteen Years at the Galleys. By an Innocent Man, Chambers's Journal, 9. Letting the Cat out of the Bag, 10. Case of the Alabama, Daily News, 328 331 333 334 335 POETRY.-The Lesson of the Year, 290. The Proclamation, 290. To President Lincoln, 290. SHORT ARTICLES.-Distance of the Fixed Stars, 294. Poisoners and Polkas, 299. Old Hickory's Statue at New Orleans, 315. Death of Professor Renwick, 327. The Sale of Raw Silk in Lyons, 327. WE are glad to spread before our readers, in a few pages, the record of the opinions and feelings of the people in England who really suffer for want of the cotton which our Rebels keep back. These working men are worthy disciples of the English and French philosophers who have understood this war; they redeem the character of the British Nation,-and are its truest representatives. The article on Mexico is important. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, & CO., BOSTON. For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded free of postage. Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANY NUMBER may be had for 13 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. THE LESSON OF THE YEAR. My curse go after thee beyond the door That darkens at thy ghastly going forth. "Away, foul beldame! give the Young Year room, What he is like none who await him know; At worst his looks will mend thy face of doom, Worse year than thou, the world can never know." The Old Year on the threshold paused and turned, Red stains were thick upon the shroud she wore, A voice came to me, sad at once and stern; "About this sphere, where thy poor life is past, I work His bidding: His the will not mine; His prison opening to their golden keys, Into the glorious liberty of God. He cast the symbols of his shame away; Smarted with wrong, he prayed, "God pardon So went he forth: but in God's time he came The land a saint that lost him as a slave. O dark, sad millions, patiently and dumb Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong! The root of blessing in my bitterest ban known. "From civil war's high-heaped and festering grave, By means unguessed of those who fight or rule, Grows, slow but sure, the freedom of the slave, While human foresight gapes, a baffled fool. "In War's rude gripe, what lies, which stoutest thrust Of Peace, and all her train, could never shake, Are shattered into rottenness and dust What powers of unguessed nobleness awake! "What lessons are made clear by War's red light To those who fight and those who watch the strife! Out of the soil swept bare by battle's blight "For cotton-dearth, with pain and misery rife, How of endurance comes a strength unknown, "Then curse me not, but bless me; there is balm For every bruise that God inflicts on earth; Go forth, like him! like him return again, And heal with freedom what your slavery cursed. TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN. JANUARY 1, 1863. The slave-cloud dwindles on this golden day, Better, with this great end, partial defeat, Than laud and triumph won with shameful The dead Past lies in its dead winding-sheet; |