The common construction put upon the expression, "_rule with rigor_," and an inference drawn from it, have an air so oracular, as quite to overcharge risibles of ordinary calibre, if such an effect were not forestalled by its impiety. It is interpreted to mean, "you shall not make him an article of property, you shall not force him to work, and rob him of his earnings, you shall not make him a chattel, and strip him of legal protection." So much for the interpretation. The inference is like unto it, viz. Since the command forbade such outrages upon the _Israelites, it permitted and commissioned_ the infliction of them upon the _Strangers_. Such impious and shallow smattering, captivates two classes of minds, the one by its flippancy, the other by its blasphemy, and both, by the strong scent of its unbridled license. What boots it to reason against such rampant affinities! In Exodus, chap. i. 13, 14, it is said that the Egyptians "made the children of Israel to _serve_ with rigor," "and all their _service_ wherein they made them _serve_, was with rigor." The rigor here spoken of, is affirmed of the _amount of labor_ extorted from them, and the _mode_ of the exaction. This form of expression, "_serve with rigor_," is never applied to the service of servants either under the Patriarchal, or the Mosaic systems. Nor is any other form of expression ever used, either equivalent to it, or at all similar. The phrase, "thou shalt not RULE over him with rigor," used in Leviticus xxv. 43, 46, does not prohibit unreasonable exactions of labor, nor inflictions of personal cruelty. _Such were provided against otherwise_. But it forbids, confounding the distinctions between a Jew and a Stranger, by assigning the former to the same grade of service, for the same term of time, and under the same national and political disabilities as the latter. We are now prepared to survey at a glance, the general condition of the different classes of servants, with the modifications peculiar to each class. I. In the possession of _all fundamental rights, all classes of servants were on an absolute equality_, all were _equally protected_ by law in their persons, character, property and social relations. All were _voluntary_, all were _compensated_ for their labor. All were released from their regular labor nearly _one half of the days in each year_, all were furnished with stated _instruction_; none in either class were in any sense articles of _property_, all were regarded as _men_, with the rights, interests, hopes, and destinies of _men_. In these respects the circumstances of _all_ classes of servants among the Israelites, were not only similar but _identical_, and so far forth, they formed but ONE CLASS. II. DIFFERENT CLASSES OF SERVANTS.