the advice which
he gave to his pupil Alexander, before he went upon his Asiatick
expedition, intreated him to "use the Greeks, as it became a
_general_, but the _barbarians_, as it became a _master_;
consider, says he, the former as _friends_ and _domesticks_;
but the latter, as _brutes_ and _plants_;"[023] inferring that
the Greeks, from the superiority of their capacities, had a
_natural_ right to dominion, and that the rest of the world, from
the inferiority of their own, were to be considered and treated as the
_irrational_ part of the creation.

Now, if we consider that this was the treatment, which they judged to be
absolutely proper for people of this description, and that their slaves
were uniformly those, whom they termed _barbarians_; being
generally such, as were either kidnapped from _Barbary_, or
purchased from the _barbarian_ conquerors in their wars with one
another; we shall immediately see, with what an additional excuse their
own vanity had furnished them for the sallies of caprice and passion.

To refute these cruel sentiments of the ancients, and to shew that their
slaves were by no means an inferiour order of beings than themselves,
may perhaps be considered as an unnecessary task; particularly, as
having shewn, that the causes of this inferiour appearance were
_incidental_, arising, on the one hand, from the combined effects
of the _treatment_ and _commerce_, and, on the other, from
_vanity_ and _pride_, we seem to have refuted them already.
But we trust that some few observations, in vindication of these
unfortunate people, will neither be unacceptable nor improper.

How then shall we begin the refutation? Shall we say with Seneca, who
saw many of the slaves in question, "What is a _knight_, or a
_libertine_, or a _slave_? Are they not names, assumed either
from _injury_ or _ambition_?" Or, shall we say with him on
another occasion, "Let us consider that he, whom we call our slave, is
born in the same manner as ourselves; that he enjoys the same sky, with
all its heavenly luminaries; that he breathes, that he lives, in the
same manner as ourselves, and, in the same manner, that he expires."
These considerations, we confess, would furnish us with a plentiful
source of arguments in the case before us; but we decline their
assistance. How then shall we begin? Shall we enumerate the many
instances of fidelity, patience, or valour, that are recorded of the
_servile_ race? Shall we enumerate the ma