Page:A memoir of Granville Sharp.djvu/28

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24
MEMOIR OF

done to himself. For example, suppose you, Omai, have got a wife that you love very much—would you like another man to come and love your wife? This raised his indignation—he put on a furious countenance and a threatening posture, signifying that he would kill any man that should meddle with his wife. Well then, Omai, I said, suppose that your wife loves you very much, she would not like that you should love another woman. For women have the same passions and feelings and love towards man, which we have towards woman—and we ought, therefore, to regulate our behavior towards them, by our own feelings of what we should like and expect of faithful love and duty from them, towards ourselves.

"This new view of the case produced a deep consideration and silence for some time on the part of Omai. But he soon satisfied me that he thoroughly comprehended the due influence of the law of liberty, when it is applied to regulate, by our own feelings, the conduct and behavior, which we owe to others. There was an inkstand on the table with several pens in it. He took one pen and laid it on the table—'there lies Lord S———,' said he. Then he took another pen and laid it down by the side of the first, and said, 'there lies Miss W———,' (an accomplished young lady who lived in adultery with Lord S———;) and then taking a third pen, and laying it on the table as far as his arm could reach from the other two, he reclined his elbow on the table and resting his head on his hand, in a pensive posture, he said, 'and there lies Lady S——— and cry—cry!'"

The heart of Granville Sharp, shrunk like the sensitive plant, from the very touch of pollution—and it responded buoyantly to every call of truth and law, as the damask rose expands when heaven with the returning summer again showers life and beauty over the earth.

On 26th September, 1776, he received the following letter from a new friend:

Sir—Being at Woolston Hall, Dr. Scott's house, he showed me your 'Law of Retribution.' I was greatly rejoiced to find, that so laborious and learned a man, had