Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/16

12 down one of your magnificent rivers with his dark cargo of slaves, it must be very cheering to hear from some benignant and judicious-looking clergyman the words, "Cursed is Canaan," and to be told that they justify what he, the slave-owner, is doing.

O the evils that spring from any misconception on any great matter! I used to wonder, when somewhat juvenile, at the unnecessary stress—unnecessary as it appeared to me—laid by Solomon upon wisdom, and to see his absolute dread of fools and folly. A little more experience has shown me that there is no wiser fear than the fear of foolishness,—a thing more terrible to meet than any wild beast of the forest. What frightful calamities, for instance, may not be directly traced up to the miserable and pedantic views which have been taken of the Bible,—views which enabled the sarcastic Gibbon to contend that the Reformation had brought in as much evil as it had removed.

Yet the simplest consideration would show that the Bible was a book,—the book, if you like,—but not all books; that it does not contain all history, or geology, or any other science, nor pretend to represent a perfect state of things, from which there is to be no improvement. To think this, is