The abolition of slavery is the recognition, morally and logically—though, of course, not always practically and politically: it must, however, always work in this direction—of the axioms ‘that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.’ In India the word for caste signifies colour. The castes are the colours. This connects the institution with conquest. Probably in Egypt it had the same origin. We have seen that it might have had. But this could not have maintained it through thousands of years. Nothing could have given it such vitality but its utility. Benefit of clergy is evidence of there having been a period in the history of modern Europe when only a very limited class was educated, and so it became the sole depository of the knowledge of the times. As there was such a period in the history of those who had inherited the arts of Greece and Rome, and among them an easy style of writing, it could not have been otherwise in old Egypt. The difficulties of maintaining knowledge must at that time have been very great; and, as all knowledge was more or less connected with religion (religion, indeed, then meaning the organization of the knowledge of the community for the regulation of its life and action), it naturally fell into the keeping of the priests, who could see no advantage in communicating it to the profane vulgar. It was their patrimony, their inheritance. This at once preserved it, and constituted its guardians a caste. The existence of one such caste would make the general introduction of the system throughout the community natural and easy. It was obviously in such times the best way of maintaining the knowledge of every art, as well as of religion itself. It also endowed society with a fixity and order nothing else could impart to it. Every man in the community was born to a certain definite condition and occupation, of which nothing could divest him, and which he never could abandon. This utterly extinguished all motives for, and almost the very idea of, insurrections and revolutions.