disgrace of the Christian name and character, new efforts are making for the extension of this trade, by subjects and citizens of Christian states, in whose hearts no sentiment of humanity or justice dwells, and over whom neither the fear of God, nor the fear of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law, the African slave trader is a pirate and a felon; and, in the sight of heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our history, than that which records the measures which have been adopted by the Government at an early day, and at different times since, for the suppression of this traffic; and I would call on all the true sons of New England to co-operate with the laws of man, and the justice of heaven. If there be within the extent of our knowledge or influence, any participation in this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, I see the smoke of the furnaces, where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those, who, by stealth and at midnight, labour in this work of hell, foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of torture. Let the spot be purified, or let cease to be of New England. Let it be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it.

I would invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they execute the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion that they proclaim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of this voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has reaped his harvest

upon the seas, that he assist in scourging from those seas the worst pirates who ever infested them. That ocean, which seems to wave with a gentle magnificence to waft the burdens of an honest commerce, and to roll along its treasures with a conscious pride; that ocean which hardy industry rewards, even when the winds have ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil; what is it to the victim of this oppression, when he is brought to these shores, and looks forth upon it, for the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with stripes? What is it to him, but a wide-spread prospect of suffering, anguish, and death? Nor do the skies smile longer, nor is the air longer fragrant to him. The sun is cast down from heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut him off in his manhood, or in his youth, from every enjoyment belonging to his being, and every blessing which his Creator intended for him.

THE PERI AND THE MERCHANT'S SON.

AN ORIENTAL LEGEND.

BY THE EDITOR.

PERIES and Deeves they take their place

Amid the ancient fairy race;

The first are radiant as the sun,

And beautiful to look upon;

Their skin is whiter than the snow

Before it falls to earth below ;

Their eyes are made of heaven's own blue,

And shine as heaven's own planets do;
Their necks are wonderfully fair,
Though hidden by the wealth of hair
That floats just like a golden cloud
That's tinted by the sun's first ray,
Or, like a rippling wave, allowed
In every passing beam to play;

Their cheeks have just the same pink tint
That gems the rose-lips of the shell;
Their lips, half-parted, only hint

The hidden pearls that 'neath them dwell;
And they've a raiment of their own,
More radiant, beautiful, and bright,
Than any now to mortals known;
Like silver wove with streaks of light,
And from their polished shoulders spring
A gauze-like, pearly filament,
Which they can close, or like a wing
Spread to the glorious firmament;
And they, of old, were often seen
To hover earth and heaven between,
Or by the margin of the lake

On earthly ground their paths to take,
Then hide in realms unknown to man,
The fairy homes of Jinnestân,
Where fairy castles, built in air,
Like ships go floating here and there,
Only these fairy homes abide

In space, and know not wind nor tide.

The Deeves they never seek the skies,
But are the Peries' enemies;

And, when they meet on earthly ground,
At war with them are ever found.
The Deeves are hideous to the sight,
And envious of the Peries bright,
And when their enemies they seize,
They hang them on the highest trees
In iron cages, bolted fast,
The prey to every chilling blast:
Round these their sister Peries brood,
And bring to them the choicest food,
The sweet musk-rose's rich perfume,
But ne'er can they escape their doom.
It happened once three Peries strayed
(Three Peries doomed on earth to stay,

For they had not their queen obeyed)
To where a mortal sleeping lay;
A form he had of noble mien,

A youth but twenty summers old,So strange a sight they ne'er had seen, For Peries may not man behold, Except, as 'twas these Peries' fate, When banished from the fairy state.

The youth had left his native town
(His sire a merchant of renown,
Known for a just and thriving man
Through all the realm of Hindostan),
Some trifling fault to expiate,

And banished thus his father's gate,
His home, his kinsmen, and his friends,
Till he should truly make amends.
And he had wandered far away,
And travelled since the break of day,
"Till faint and weary he became,
And glad of any place of rest,
Where he could sit and hide his shame.
Far from the road the traveller prest;
And so, beside the cooling stream
He lay him down to sleep and dream.
And when the Peries found him there
His brow had not a trace of care,
For blessed sleep oblivion brings,
And peace and healing on her wings;
And ever as the eyelids close
She fans them into sweet repose,
Or hovers lightly round and round,
And he her healing influence found;
But when he woke to light and air
And saw that radiant vision there,
He deemed that he was sleeping still,
So fair to him the Peries seemed,
Those lovely ladies of the hill,

Fairer than all he'd ever dreamed.

The Peries knew the Deeves were near,
And they were frightened to depart,-
Else had they not in mortal ear

Pour'd their lament to touch his heart;
But well they knew no Deeves would come
So near the paths where mortals roam,
And him they asked by them to stay
"Till night should warn their foes away,
Or they could glide unheard, unseen,
To seek some far-off fairy green.
The youth replied, with silvery tongue,
"Oh! maidens bright and fair and young,
Let me your wandering steps attend,
Your knight, your guardian, and your friend;
I have no home, alone I stray

A cruel father to obey,

My birth-right to myself belongs,
But you shall teach me fairy songs,
And all of earth I'll freely yield
So that by you to me revealed
The spell of Earth to set me free,
That I may live and die with thee,
That I may dwell with forms so fair,
May soar with thee the upper air,
And all your dear enchantments know,
For this I would the world forego."

Then said the fairest of the three,
"No, stranger, no! that cannot be;
Though we awhile on Earth may dwell,
A mortal may not know the spell
By which the Peri may assume
Her shape, her being and her doom-
For we have troubles, we have care,
Else had no foe been lingering there."
With this she pointed far away
Where hideous Deeves in ambush lay,
To catch, in an unguarded hour,
And get the Peries in their power.