She says, 'There were many negroes, together with whites of every grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, saw for the first time the raw material out of which Northern Humanitarians have spun so fine a skein of compassion and sympathy.

You must allow me one heretical whisper,--very small and low.

Nassau, and all we saw of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question whether compulsory labor be not better than none.'"[3] [Footnote 3: _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1859, p.

604.] "There is," said I, "this great question of right, with some, as to slavery: As the State has a right to interpose and send vagrant children to school, has the world a right to interpose, in certain cases, and send certain races to labor for the good of mankind?
This was the question which broke upon the lady's mind.

It is very interesting to see the question thus stated, and to notice the graceful touch of apology, and of playfulness, in the manner of stating it.