“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; _in it_ thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy _man-servant_ (עַבְדְּךָ _abeddeka_, _male slave_,) nor thy _maid-servant_ (וַֽאֲמָֽתֶךָ _va amatheka_, _nor thy female slave_), nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” _Exod._ xx. 10. “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant (וְעַבְדְּךָׄ _ve abeddeka_, _male slave_), nor thy maid-servant (וַֽאֲמָחֶךָ _va amatheka_, _female slave_), nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant (עַבְדְּךָ _abeddeka_, _male slave_) and thy maid-servant (וַֽאֲמָֽתֶךָ _va amatheka_, _female slave_) may rest as well as thou.” _Deut._ v. 14. But we find laws correcting abuses of quite a different nature; abuses that grow out of the perverse nature of man towards his fellow-man of equal grade, touching their mutual rights in property: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his _man-servant_ (וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ _ve abeddo_, _male slave_), nor his _maid-servant_ (וַֽאֲמָתוֹ _va amatho_, _female slave_), nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” _Exod._ xx. 17. “Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his _man-servant_ (וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ _ve abeddo_, _male slave_), or his _maid-servant_: (וַאֲמָתוֹ _va amatho_, _female slave_), his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” _Deut._ v. 21—the 18th of the Hebrew text. It does appear to us that these statutes speak volumes—portraying the providences of God, and his design in regard to the institutions of slavery. The word covet, as here used, as well as its original, implies that action of the mind which reaches to the possession of the thing ourselves, and to the depriving of our neighbour, without a glimpse at the idea of payment, reciprocity, or compromise; consequently, it is the exact action of mind, which, when cultivated into physical display, makes a man a thief. The command forbids that the mind shall be thus exercised, for the command only reaches to the exercise of the mind; an exercise, which, from the very nature of it, must for ever draw us deeper into crime. It is a command that well comes to us from Jehovah direct, because it is a command that man could never enforce: the individual, and Jehovah alone, can only and surely tell when it is broken. But it may be broken in various ways; it may be broken by writing books persuading others that it is no crime, that it is even praiseworthy, by any other course of conduct, to weaken the tenure of the proprietor in the property named. “But fools do sometimes fearless tread, Where angels dare not even look!”