Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/28

24 divinities in their way, refuse no aid to this dark, devilish thing as it skims gracefully over the waters; and, if it escapes our cruisers, the "Santa Trinidad" lands half or two thirds of its original live cargo, and is considered to have done a good stroke of business. Truly, the apparent silence of God is the most awful thing the sun looks down upon.

It is somewhere said that "evil is good in the making": this is a brave and noble saying; it were to be wished, however, that our part of the process were a little better understood and less dilatory. At the same time, it must be admitted that a good deal of nonsense is thought and talked about this question of evil; and we sometimes seem to want a sugared kind of universal beneficence and happiness which really and truly may be a very low form of either.

How supremely dull, for instance, a perfectly well-governed state would be. On the other hand, how exquisitely humorous, though very sad withal, is the present condition of things. You see rabid attempts at freedom result in twisting the chains more closely and painfully around the shouters for freedom. You see the effort to bring more and more assured wisdom and virtue, under the shape of popular opinion, into the administration of af-