Page:The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery.djvu/102

 slavery, they would have to encounter all the chances of a perpetual struggle with society—a struggle in which even the rich and the strong not unfrequently succumb."

This account of the ancient pagan slaves corresponds exactly with Mr. Edward Smith's account of the slaves he met with in the Southern States of America. The latter would not give you "thank ye" for their liberty, "feeling the protection of their masters to be an advantage," and because the "mere hirer has not the attachment for the hired that the master naturally feels for his slave."

It may be asked, then, how came the ancient pagan slave to appreciate the boon of liberty when gratuitously given to him by his Christian master? M. de Cassagnac, we think, answers the question with great force and truth. "But in the new Christian association the slave felt a new motive and attraction towards liberty. In the first place, the enfranchised Christian was not, as in pagan society, repulsed by the remorseless prejudices of caste. Without refusing to take nobility of race into account, it showed no extravagant preference for it, as paganism did. The Apostles and the early Fathers had freely extended the hand of fellowship to the enfranchised and to the lower orders in general—a race of men whom the Gentiles, that is to say, the genteel society of paganism, had, up to that time, scornfully flouted. St. Paul wrote to the Romans, that before God there is no exception of persons; and St. Gregory and St. Ambrose have filled their works with philosophical as well as Christian raillery levelled against the pride of pedigree, and the right of domination founded upon it, which was a direct onslaught upon the pagan nobility, whose principle was the tradition of power and rank according to blood. The enfranchised slaves and their offspring were always welcome amongst the Christians, to share with them every social advantage. They might pass through all the degrees of clerical ordination—become deacons, priests, bishops,—in short, leap that hitherto impassable gulf, which, under the old pagan régime, completely separated the humble from the higher ranks of society. Accordingly, the Christian slaves who became free were sure to have no moral prepossession or prejudice against them, while all religious ones were in their favour. They were certain not to be insolently scouted as of the lower orders, and also to be succoured and relieved, in case of need, as fellow-Christians. It was on this account they precipitated themselves into the régime of liberty, and that so imprudently and in such immense masses that, suddenly becoming their own masters, and responsible for their own maintenance, the vast majority were soon overtaken and overwhelmed by misery of which they had had no foresight—a misery till then unheard of—an appalling misery, the recollections of which, as handed down to us from the fourth century, present a veritable picture of horrors."

It is only those who have felt the insolence of rank and power who can appreciate the motives which impelled the slaves and the lower ranks of citizens to embrace the new Christian code of liberty in the days to which the foregoing passage refers. One more passage, illustrative of this view, we shall translate from another part of