Ralph Waldo Emerson 6

Slavery is disheartening; but Nature is not so helpless but it can rid itself of every last wrong. 

But the spasms of nature are centuries and ages and will tax the faith of short-lived men. Slowly, slowly the Avenger comes, but comes surely. 

The proverbs of the nations affirm these delays, but affirm the arrival. They say, "God may consent, but not forever." 

The delay of the Divine Justice—this was the meaning and soul of the Greek Tragedy—this was the soul of their religion. 

—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Fugitive Slave Law 

IMAGE: John Simpson, The Captive Slave (1827)