NEGRO LEARNING.
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their ungodly mirth. Oh, how do our ears become shocked at every turn of the street, at every hour of the day, by the language of this class of persons ! while that great and holy name, " at which every knee shall bow," is bandied about as a common interjection. There are some to be met with among the negroes whose display of learning is very ludicrous. We have a servant now living with us who often calls up from me an involuntary smile. I heard her speaking the other evening to a fellow-servant, whose name is Diana. " Diana, my goddess Î come here. Let me see, Diana was the goddess of truth, and Junus the goddess of sleep, and so you must not tell me a story, or go to sleep !" Diana did not appear to comprehend this burst of eloquence, and so her friend went on to explain to her, that as ''Airy was the ram, and Callus the bull, Virgo was a lion, and Quaris was a water-pot ;" she must bow to her superior knowledge in everything. To this, Diana humbly assented with " Ees, Miss Charlotte !" accompanied by a stare of amazement. I don't wonder, however, at poor Diana's surprise at her friend's knowledge ; I am sure she often startles me. Another evening, I saw her standing in the yard, with outstretched arms, and upturned eyes, gazing upon a bright star, which twinkled above, while in a very lackadaisical tone, she exclaimed, " Oh, Mars ! invoke me by thy rays ! " I hope, however, what I have said in this last page will not discountenance those worthy characters who are employed in opening the book of knowledge to the eyes of the ignorant. In the words of a much-admired writer, " the delightful hope may be cherished by him who shall bring his mite for the promotion of the Lancastrian system of instruction for giving knowledge to the ignorant—the hope that he is providing for the display of a genius in works of the highest utility, which might otherwise have expended itself in a career of infamous contrivance, long operating as a pest to society, terminating in the ignominious destruction of the victim of the want of education. And when the in-