No sympathy should be wasted on the negro
sufferer from mortification at not being able to "change his skin."
The Ethiopian of whatever shade of colour who is not satisfied with
being such was never intended to be more than a mere living figure.
Mr. Froude further confidently states that whilst a superior Negro
"might do well himself," yet "his family feel their blood as a
degradation." If there be some who so feel, they are indeed very
much to be pitied; but their sentiments are not entitled to the
serious importance with which our critic has invested them. But is
it at all conceivable that a people whose sanity has never in any way
been questioned would strain every nerve to secure for their
offspring a [37] distinction the consequence of which to themselves
would be a feeling of their own abasement? The poor Irish peasant who
toils and starves to secure for his eldest son admission into the
Catholic priesthood, has a far other feeling than one of humiliation
when contemplating that son eventually as the spiritual director of a
congregation and parish. Similarly, the laudable ambition which, in
the case of a humble Scotch matron, is expressed in the wish and
exertion to see her Jamie or Geordie "wag his pow in the pou'pit,"
produces, when realized, salutary effects in the whole family
connection.
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