honors of the university, in the intensity of his desire to redress the wrongs of Africa. "It is impossible," he says, in his "History of Slavery," "to imagine the severe anguish which the composition of this essay cost me. All the pleasure that I had promised myself from the contest, was exchanged for pain, by the astounding facts that were now continually before me. It was one gloomy subject, from morning till night. In the day, I was agitated and uneasy; in the night I had little or no rest. I was so overwhelmed with grief, that I sometimes never closed my eyes during the whole night; and I no longer regarded my essay as a mere trial for literary distinction. My great desire now was to produce a work that should call forth a vigorous public effort to redress the wrongs of injured Africa."
Under the influence of this desire, and with his intellectual powers thoroughly aroused and concentrated upon the theme, he produced an essay that not only won the highest prize, but touched a chord in the English heart that has not ceased to vibrate to this hour. And the great secret of his success in this, and in his subsequent efforts, was the fact, that he gave his whole soul to the work. He thus describes his feelings while on his way to London, after having read the essay at the university: "During my journey, the melancholy subject was not a moment absent from my thoughts. I occasionally stopped my horse, dismounted, and walked. I tried frequently to persuade myself that the statements
