Here then arose a difference in the circumstances of men, and the poor and weak were obliged to submit themselves to the control of the rich and powerful; but although the authority exercised was at first mild, and ensured to the bondsmen almost the same privileges with their masters, yet the idea of power soon crept in upon the mind, and at length lenity was converted into rigidity, and the gall of servitude became insupportable; the oppressed, soon found that _that liberty_, which they had just given up, was an inalienable privilege of man, and sought means to regain it: this was effected,--but not until a time when ignorance began to decline, when improvements were made in the arts, commerce and governments, and when men could seek protection from the law, or by industry could ward off the bitterness of poverty, and ensure to themselves an independence. Happy circumstance! To feel oneself emancipated from the chains of slavery, must awaken every delicate sensation of the soul, and transport the gloomy mind into a region of bliss; for what is life, without an enjoyment of those privileges which have been given to us by nature? It is a burden, which if not awed by Divine Providence, would be speedily cast off, by all who sweat under the yoke of slavish servitude, and know no alternative but an unceasing submission to the goads of a brutal master. Ages have revolved since this happy condition of human affairs; and although mankind have been gradually verging from a state of simplicity to a more social refinement, yet the governments of those primitive times laid open an analogy for licentiousness; and we find, by pursuing the history of man, that slavery was again introduced, and stained the annals of all the powers of Europe. The idea of possessing, as property, was too lucrative to be totally eradicated; it diffused itself into Egypt and Cyprus, which became the first and most noted markets for the sale and purchase of slaves, and soon became the cause of rapine and bloodshed in Greece and Rome: there it was an established custom to subject to slavery all the captives in time of war; and not only the Emperors, but the nobility, were in possession of thousands--to them they served as instruments of diversion and authority. To give an idea only of the amphitheatrical entertainments, so repugnant to humanity, would make the most obdurate heart feel with keen sensibility. For to hear with patience of voracious animals being turned loose among human beings, to give sport to the rich and great, when upon reflection, he may be assured, that the merciless jaw knew no restraint but precipitately charged upon its prey whom it left, without remorse, either massacred or maimed. Such was the practice among the ancients, and to charge the modern with like enormities, would by many be deemed criminal.