. . ."
[45] But, alas, with the mercurialism of temperament in which he has
thought proper to indulge when only Negroes and Europeans not of
"Anglo-West Indian" tendencies were concerned, he jauntily threw to
the winds all the scruples and cautious minuteness which were
essential to the proper execution of his project. At Barbados, as we
have seen, he satisfies himself with sitting aloft, at a balcony-
window, to contemplate the movements of the sable throng below, of
whose character, moral and political, he nevertheless professes to
have become a trustworthy delineator. From the above-quoted account
of his impressions of the external traits and deportment of the
Ethiopic folk thus superficially gazed at, our author passes on to an
analysis of their mental and moral idiosyncrasies, and other intimate
matters, which the very silence of the book as to his method of
ascertaining them is a sufficient proof that his knowledge in their
regard has not been acquired directly and at first hand. Nor need we
say that the generally adverse cast of his verdicts on what he had
been at no pains to study for himself points to the "hostileness" of
the witnesses whose [46] testimony alone has formed the basis of his
conclusions.
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