logical deductions. Such authors have nothing to do with facts, or
things as they exist among us. Their imaginations are ever ready to
furnish facts, on which to base their preconceived inferences and
conclusions. They were cast in a fictitious mould, and works of
fiction they have read, until their minds can run in no other channel.
Their mental vision seizes an object, and they pursue it with an
enthusiasm that borders on insanity. Onward, and upward their flight;
blind and deaf--utterly insensible to all surrounding objects. The
object of pursuit is their "all in all;" and every thing must be
sacrificed for its attainment. In their view, there is no other object
or interest worthy of a moment's consideration in earth, or heaven.
Their religion too, is of a peculiar cast. They are frequently very
religious in their own way. In their estimation, the very essence of
piety, the sum total of all religion consists in the advancement of
some one benevolent object. Above, beneath, beyond the attainment of
this, there is no religion, no virtue. Every thing must not only be
brought into requisition, in order to its attainment; but the end must
be attained in their own way, and according to their own notions; or
otherwise it might as well be left undone. In nine eases out of ten,
though the object of pursuit is a laudable one, yet so ill-judged and
injudicious are their plans, that if carried out, they will result in
more evil than good. The plainest and most obvious declarations of the
Bible, if they contravene their favorite theories or doctrines, are to
them unmeaning twaddle; though they are always ready to press the good
book into their service, so far as they are able by forced
constructions of detached passages, to give plausibility to their own
visionary opinions and projects.

[2] I had read but a few pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin, when the
following sentences were written. Before I had passed through the