Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/329

Rh of christian humility and magnanimity, as eminently qualifies him to enjoy an infinitely higher reward than the applause of mortals, in the success of his cause, the testimony of his conscience, and the approbation of his God; and when the greater is conscientiously pursued, the lesser follows un-sought. Such names as those of Sharpe and Clarkson are not permitted to steal into oblivion, any more than the fragrance of the violet can be suppressed by the leaves under which it hides its modest beauties.

Another permanent record of the glorious event is preserved in an elegant publication by a late talented and spirited artist and publisher, R. Bowyer, Esq. Pall Mall. Desiring that the illustrious act of the British legislature should be popularly commemorated by a tribute of British genius, he engaged in his cause the allied arts of poetry and painting, and produced a splendid volume, which he dedicated to the Duke of Gloucester, and the society of which that illustrious prince was the patron. The work comprises three poems: the first, by James Montgomery, entitled The West Indies;" the second, by James Grahame, entitled "Africa Delivered the third, by E. Benger, entitled "A Poem occasioned by the Abolition of the Slave-Trade." The embellishments are from paintings by R. Smirke; they comprise busts of Wilberforce, Sharpe, and Clarkson; a vignette of the fable of Prometheus delivered, to which there are explanatory lines by Montgomery; and nine other beautiful engravings, illustrative of the sentiments of the poems.

But though the slave-trade and its horrors were done away, as far as the laws of Great Britain