condition of the slaves, up to a period little later than that which
witnessed the establishment of Christianity in the world, could not have
avoided the acknowledgment of the influence of that beneficent cause, if
he had not already determined not to speak of it.

"Upon establishing despotic government in the Roman empire, domestic
tyranny rose, in a short time, to an astonishing height. In that rank
soil, every vice, which power nourishes in the great, or oppression
engenders in the mean, thrived and grew up apace. * * * It is not the
authority of any single detached precept in the gospel, but the spirit
and genius of the Christian religion, more powerful than any particular
command, which hath abolished the practice of slavery throughout the
world. The temper which Christianity inspired was mild and gentle; and
the doctrines it taught added such dignity and lustre to human nature,
as rescued it from the dishonorable servitude into which it was sunk."

It is in vain, then, that Gibbon pretends to attribute solely to the
desire of keeping up the number of slaves, the milder conduct which the
Romans began to adopt in their favor at the time of the emperors. This
cause had hitherto acted in an opposite direction; how came it on
a sudden to have a different influence? "The masters," he says,
"encouraged the marriage of their slaves; * * * the sentiments of
nature, the habits of education, contributed to alleviate the hardships
of servitude." The children of slaves were the property of their master,
who could dispose of or alienate them like the rest of his property. Is
it in such a situation, with such notions, that the sentiments of nature
unfold themselves, or habits of education become mild and peaceful? We
must not attribute to causes inadequate or altogether without force,
effects which require to explain them a reference to more influential
causes; and even if these slighter causes had in effect a manifest
influence, we must not forget that they are themselves the effect of
a primary, a higher, and more extensive cause, which, in giving to the
mind and to the character a more disinterested and more humane bias,
disposed men to second or themselves to advance, by their conduct,
and by the change of manners, the happy results which it tended to
produce.--G.

I have retained the whole of M. Guizot's note, though, in his zeal for
the invaluable blessings of freedom and Christianity, he has done Gibbon
injustice. The c