For instance, a European and a European woman, of a neighboring country, or of a different family, may produce children of a constitution as good as the offspring of a European and a negress. Long since in Europe, and among several nations, national characteristics have been obliterated; intermixtures of families have been multiplied by emigrations of northern nations towards the south, by conquests, colonies, and revolutions of empires. So, the Turkish and Persian blood has been improved by the mixtures with nations inhabiting Caucasus, as Mingrelian, Caucasian women, &c.; but in old Europe, nations mixing too much together, and being effeminated by luxury, are not so strong and healthy as their ancestors. Besides, we generally remark that manners are corrupted, in proportion to those mixtures. Truly, knowledge is more universally spread, but by the same reason diseases are likewise more so, as we see the plague, small pox, venereal diseases, and cholera morbus, each in its turn invading the globe. ON SLAVERY All over the world, and among all nations, we find differences in rank and power. Some are masters, others more or less subjected or enslaved.* The negro species particularly has been constantly subjected to the white, in every country where both have come in contact. Aristotle maintains that there are slaves by nature; that there are beings of inferior intellect, or incapable of providing for themselves, and for this coudemned by nature to subordination. Among the Athenians, Solon; and among the Romans, Romulus, ha given to the fathers the power of life and death over their children. Such was the custom among the Persians, although Aristotle calls it tyranny. So it was among other nations, whose laws were thought perfect.§ * In the most ancient times, Eastern nations, attached to the word white, white man, an idea of liberty and superiority, and to the word black, negro, that of servitude, slavery, taxes. By a metaphor, such names were given to countries. Hence it comes that white Russia, white Valachia, meant free countries; for this rason also, in ancient times, Huns were distinguished into white and black, and when the czars of Russia shook off the yoke of the Tartars, they received the title of whites.-Schérer, annales de la petite Russie, p. 95, note. + Politique. Meral. nicom., lib. viii., cap. xii. Dion. Prusæus, orat. xv. By what right should we have dominion over all animals, if it was not owing to the superiority of intellect and dexterity, which God evidently gave to man, to govern as a master all animals. If our power is legitimate, if the Eternal order required that the weak and narrow minded beings should be subject to the strong and intelligent ones, their born protectors, as woman to man, as the young to the old, for the same reason, the negro, being less intelligent than the white, was then created to obey him. So fate decrees.* Is it not nature which, giving to the negroes and Indians a smaller skull, has made the intellect of those nations subservient to the white race, whose mind is superior, and brain more developed. Is it possible, that if such disparity of organic fraine did not exist, two hundred millions of Chinese could have been conquered so easily by a handful of Tartars; or how could the Europeans lord it over the world, as they have done, so successfully in the Indies, Africa and America. Is it not a constant fact in natural history, that among several species of animals, the females and young ones obey males? Again: in several little republics of insects, do we not find warriors, protectors, and, at the same time, masters; for instance, among termites (Termes futale) and the warlike ants, whose conquests and victories have been described by Mr. Hubert, are there not numerous Helots, or prisoners of war, condemned to supply their conquerors with food, to build dwellings for them, and take care of their offspring. Thus, nature acknowledges, or rather establishes the disparity of races and species. It is nature that subjects the sheep to the wolf, as it has placed man *It is a remarkable instance, that in the islands of France and Bourbon, dogs belonging to negroes, follow the example of their masters, and yield to the dogs of the whites.-Voyage à l'ile de France, d l'ile de Bourbon, par un officier du roi, (Bernardin de St. Pierre) Amsterdam et Paris, 1773, in 8vo. vol. 1, p. 195. above all the animals, as their supreme moderator. The world is a vast republic, where the rank of every one is marked. All beings, with the process of time, necessarily find their proper place and coordination, according to their respective value and power; as in a mixture of elements of heterogenous weights, every one rises or falls according to its specific gravity. What do the defenders of a fanciful equality pretend? Were such a system of equality permitted, the world could not exist. Let man be deprived of his power over animals, and agriculture would be destroyed, man himself reduced to the necessity of living in the woods, and feeding upon wild roots. Let such discrimination between animals be destroyed; let goods and properties be divided into equal parts among men, not one will be found willing to work for another; every thing will be annihilated for want of movers, as riches and distinctions. For, who would excel, if he were not to enjoy the advantages which are derived from superiority of industry and application. Then, it follows, that a perfect and constant equality is impossible, or presents nothing more than the torpor of the grave. Nature has more wisely permitted that the weak and strong beings should both exist, in order that the latter should employ the former for the common good, and protect him. It may be that such an order will appear unjust, but is it more unjust that the lion should devour the innocent antelope; that man should slaughter the useful ox who with so much pain cultivates his land; yet has not nature sanctioned, if we may use the expression, such atrocities. Who can deny that natural inequalities exist among men; even fictitious ones are necessary to the existence of society but such inequalities are counterpoised by each other. Man has been a child, and nature teaches him to respect the weakness of children; he has been more or less unfortunate, and fortune is so very inconstant that he cannot be insolent in prosperity. However illustrious and great may be his lineage, is not chance the cause of it, and does not this reflection check his pride? Let the slave ThamasKouli-Khan, sitting on the mighty throne of Persia, proclaim if he felt happier and more free amidst plots, snares and conspirations. Let Sixtus the fifth deny that he has purchased the pontifical tiara by forty years of hypocrisy and restraint. For my part, I should prefer the humble lot of the slave Epictetus, to the destiny of the Emperor Nero, surrounded with wealth and power, but stained with the most dark and infamous crimes which will stamp his memory, with an eternal shame, throughout future ages.* The word slave is derived, among moderns, from slavus Sclavonian, a people originally coming from Tartary or Scythia, whom Charlemagne, their conqueror, condemned to a perpetual servitude-according to Vossius and Menage, likewise "servi" among Romans, were only prisoners of war retained, (servus from servare,) they were called also mancipia (quasi manu capti) seized with the hands.t Thus the principle of slavery among men takes its source in the captivity at war. The Bible traces it as far as Nimbrod; Abraham had a great many slaves; Hebrews were brought into subjection by the Egyptians, and the slave trade was so common, that Joseph was sold by his brothers. The Bible frequently mentions the traffic in slaves, and the purest patriarchs participated in this kind of trade. * Perhaps good and evil are not so unequally distributed between the master and the slave, the poor and the rich, as it would appear from their conditions; for cares follow riches, and he whose body is enslaved, has often a freer mind-Théodoret, De Providentiá, operum, v. iv, p. 392. Paris, 1642, in folio. "Jure gentium servi nostri sunt qui ab hostibus capiuntur,•` says Justinian, 1. 1, tit. 5, 1. and Institut. 1. iii, iv. Genes., c.xlvii, and Levitic. c.xxv. |