"The White Slaves, Among The Romans, Were Often Their Rarest Artists; They Excelled Too In Science, Insomuch As To Be Usually Employed As Tutors To Their Masters' Children.

Epictetus, Terence, and Phoedrus, were slaves. Whether further observation will, or will not, verify the conjecture, that Nature has

Been less bountiful to them, in the endowments of the head, I believe in those of the heart she will be found to have done them justice. That disposition to theft, with which they have been branded, must be ascribed to their situation, and not to any depravity of the moral sense. The man, in whose favour no laws of property exist, probably feels himself less bound to respect those made in favour of others. When arguing for ourselves, we lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience. And it is a problem which I give the master to solve, whether the religious precepts against the violation of property, were not formed for _him_, as well as his slave, and whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little from one who has taken _all_ from him, as he would slay one that would slay him?

"That a change in the relation in which a man is placed should change his ideas of moral right and wrong, is neither new, nor confined to the blacks; Homer tells us, it was so 2600 years ago:

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 115 of 128
Words from 31353 to 31610 of 35016