As we have mentioned the barbarous and inhuman treatment that generally fell to the lot of slaves, it may not be amiss to inquire into the various circumstances by which it was produced. The first circumstance, from whence it originated, was the _commerce_: for if men could be considered as _possessions_; if, like _cattle_, they could be _bought_ and _sold_, it will not be difficult to suppose, that they could be held in the same consideration, or treated in the same manner. The commerce therefore, which was begun in the primitive ages of the world, by classing them with the brutal species, and by habituating the mind to consider the terms of _brute_ and _slave_ as _synonimous_, soon caused them to be viewed in a low and despicable light, and as greatly inferiour to the human species. Hence proceeded that treatment, which might not unreasonably be supposed to arise from so low an estimation. They were tamed, like beasts, by the stings of hunger and the lash, and their education was directed to the same end, to make them commodious instruments of labour for their possessors. This _treatment_, which thus proceeded in the ages of barbarism, from the low estimation, in which slaves were unfortunately held from the circumstances of the commerce, did not fail of producing, in the same instant, its _own_ effect. It depressed their minds; it numbed their faculties; and, by preventing those sparks of genius from blazing forth, which had otherwise been conspicuous; it gave them the appearance of being endued with inferiour capacities than the rest of mankind. This effect of the _treatment_ had made so considerable a progress, as to have been a matter of observation in the days of Homer. For half _his_ senses Jove conveys away, _Whom_ once he dooms to see the _servile_ day.[021] Thus then did the _commerce_, by classing them originally with _brutes_, and the consequent _treatment_, by cramping their _abilities_, and hindering them from becoming _conspicuous_, give to these unfortunate people, at a very early period, the most unfavourable _appearance_. The rising generations, who received both the commerce and treatment from their ancestors, and who had always been accustomed to behold their _effects_, did not consider these _effects_ as _incidental_: they judged only from what they saw; they believed the _appearances_ to be _real_; and hence arose the combined principle, that slaves were an _inferiour_ order of men, and perfectly void of _understanding_. Upon this _principle_ it was, that the former treatment began to be fully confirmed and established; and as this _principle_ was handed down and disseminated, so it became, in succeeding ages, an _excuse_ for any severity, that despotism might suggest. We may observe here, that as all nations had this excuse in common, as arising from the _circumstances_ above-mentioned, so the Greeks first, and the Romans afterwards, had an _additional excuse_, as arising from their own _vanity_.