that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of condufl:, founded in force, and not in confcience: and it is a problem which I give to the mafter to folve, whe- ther the religious precepts againft the vio- lation of property were not framed for him as well as his flave? And whether the flave may not as juftifiably take a little from one, who has taken all from him, as he may flay one who would flay him? That a change in the relations in which a man is placed fhould change his ideas of [ 28o ] moral right or wrong, is neither new, nor peculiar to the colour of the blacks. Homer tells us it was fo 2600 years ago ^EmisUy ger t aretes apoahmtai euruopa Zeus Haneros, euf an min kata doulion ema eles'in.
Odd. 17. 323.
Jove fix'd it certain, that whatever day Makes man a Have, takes half his worth away^ But the ilaves of which Homer fpeaks were whites. Notwithftanding thefe con- fiderations which muft weaken their re- fpeft for the laws of property, we find among them numerous inftances of the moft rigid integrity, and as many as among their better inftruflied matters, of benevo- lence, gratitude, and unfliaken fidelity. The opinion, that they are inferior in the faculties of reafon and imagination, muft be hazarded with great diffidence. To juftify a general conclufion, requires many obfervations, even where the fubjed: may be fubmitted to the anatomical knife, to optical clafles, to analyfis by fire, or by folvents. How much more then where it is a faculty, not a fubftance, we are I 281 ] examining; where it eludes the refearch of all the fenfes; where the conditions of its exiftence are various and varioufly combined; where the efFefts of thofe which are prefent or abfent bid defiance to calculation; let me add too, as a cir- cumftance of great tendernefs, where our conclufion would degrade a whole race of men from the rank in the fcale of beings which their Creator may perhaps have given them. To our