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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
natural , superiority over his juniors * In every doubtful , question the pro * suitor was the last appeal ; and in the long observance of this custom was founded at length that natural , gentle supremacy , the patriarchal government ; one rather securing than subverting universal equality .
Cut this could not endure for ever . Some were less industrious , some less favoured by fortune and by the soil , some bora weaker than others ; there were therefore the strong and the weak , the bold and the timid , the wealthy and the poor . The weak and poor must beg , the wealthy could give and refuse . The subjection of man to man began .
It was in the nature of tilings that extreme age should emancipate from toil , and that the youth should undertake the portion of the grey-headed sire , the son that of his hoary father . Soon was this natural duty imitated by art . In many the wish must arise of
uniting the easy rest of age with the enjoyments of youth , and of procuring some one in future to perform the office of a son . The eye of such fell on the poorer and weaker , who either
required support , or laid claim to superfluity . The poor and weak stood in need of their protection ; they on the other hand made use of the suppliants'industry . The one , therefore , became the condition of the other .
The wretched and more feeble served and received ; the strong and rich bestowed and were idle . The first distinction of ranks . The rich man became more opulent by the exertions of the poor : to increase his wealth he added to the number of
his slaves : he saw many , therefore , around him , less fortunate than himself ; many depended upon him . The rich man felt his importance , and became proud . He began to confound the instruments of bis prosperity with the tools of his will . The labour of
many was converted to the advantage of him , the one : hence he concluded that the many existed for the sake of the one . He had now only one little ^ ep to the despot .
ihe sod of the wealthy man began to meequ . hirnself more highly than tltt ! sods of his father ' s slaves . Heaven ml favoured \^\ m mor « than thes e , therefor ? wgs he dearer to Heaven .
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He called himself the offspring of Heaven , as we style Fortune ' s favour * ites her ; sons . Compared with him * the servant ; was only a son of mam Hence in Genesis , the distinction Jbe ^ tweon the children of Elohim and the
children of men . Prosperity induced indolence , indolence conducted to voluptuousness , and finally to vice . To fill up life , the number of enjoyments must be increased ; the common allowance of
nature had no longer power to satisfy the reveller , who , in lazy rest , meditated on pleasure . He must have all things better s . / iU in fuller jneasure than the bonds 11 * 3 * 4 .
The servant contented himself as yet with one wife ; he permitted himself more- But ever-d tiring pleasure becomes flat and wearisome . He must consider then how to enhance it l > v
artificial stimulants . A new stop . He was no longer contented with the mere gratification of sensual impulse '; he would unite many and refined enjoyments h \ one . Lawful gratifications no longer satisfied him ; his desires rested on such as were
clandestine . Woman alone ceased to charm him : he required beauty in her . Among the daughters of his staves he discovered fair females . His good fortune had made him haughty ; pride and security made him insolent , H ^
easily persuaded himself that 311 was his that was his slaves ' . Because every thing depended on him , he thought every tiling allowable in him . The daughter of his servant was too lowly for his wife , out might serve to gratify his passions A new and important step from rcliiiCJueat to
deterioration . The example once given , the corruption of morals mast goon become universal . The fewer compulsory laws they found to restrain them , or the nearer the society in which this
depravity arose was 10 a state of innocence , the more furiously must it spread . The right of the strongest was asserted 5 power authorized oppression j
and for the first time tyrants appear . The record speaks of these as the children of pleasure , the illegitimate offspring of unlawful connexion . If this be literally true , there is some-
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giiidqp % ( fa due qftht ; tfmH& B& < md- 411
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/27/
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