Having premised this, we may now proceed to a general division of slavery, into _voluntary_ and _involuntary_. The _voluntary_ will comprehend the two classes, which we have already mentioned; for, in the first instance, there was a _contract_, founded on _consent_; and, in the second, there was a _choice_ of engaging or not in those practices, the known consequences of which were servitude. The _involuntary_; on the other hand, will comprehend those, who were forced, without any such _condition_ or _choice_, into a situation, which as it tended to degrade a part of the human species, and to class it with the brutal, must have been, of all human situations, the most wretched and insupportable. These are they, whom we shall consider solely in the present work. We shall therefore take our leave of the former, as they were mentioned only, that we might state the question with greater accuracy, and, be the better enabled to reduce it to its proper limits. * * * * * FOOTNOTES [Footnote 004: Genesis, Ch. 47. Leviticus XXV. v. 39, 40.] [Footnote 005: The _Thetes_ appear very early in the Grecian History.--kai tines auto kouroi epont'Ithakes exairetoi; he eoi autou thentes te Dmoes(?) te; Od. Homer. D. 642. They were afterwards so much in use that, "Murioi depou apedidonto eautous ose douleuein kata sungraphen," till Solon suppressed the custom in Athens.] [Footnote 006: The mention of these is frequent among the classics; they were called in general _mercenarii_, from the circumstances of their _hire_, as "quibus, non malè præcipiunt, qui ita jubent uti, ut _mercenariis_, operam exigendam, justa proebenda. Cicero de off." But they are sometimes mentioned in the law books by the name of _liberi_, from the circumstances of their _birth_, to distinguish them from the _alieni_, or foreigners, as Justinian. D. 7. 8. 4. --Id. 21. 1. 25. &c. &c. &c.] * * * * * CHAP. II.