EQUALITY OF MANKIND. 



45 



the dust, and all return to the dust again. This 

 consideration, on which it is unnecessary to 

 dwell, shows the reasonableness of union and af 

 fection among men, on the same grounds from 

 which we conclude that brothers and sisters be 

 longing to the same family ought to manifest a 

 friendly affection for each other. 



Secondly, Men of all nations and ranks are 

 equal in respect to the mechanism of their bodies 

 and the mental faculties with which they are en 

 dowed. Whether their bodies be rudely covered 

 with the skins of beasts, or adorned with the 

 splendours of royalty ; whether they be exposed 

 naked to the scorching heats and piercing colds, 

 or arrayed in robes of silk and crimson in their 

 construction arid symmetry they equally bear the 

 impress of infinite wisdom and omnipotence. 

 The body of the meanest peasant, who earns his 

 scanty subsistence from day to day by the sweat 

 of his brow, is equally admirable, in the motions 

 of its fingers, the structure of its limbs, and the 

 connexion and uses of its several functions, as 

 the body of the mightiest and the proudest baron 

 who looks down upon him^with contempt. The 

 organs of vision comprise as many coats and 

 humours, muscular fibres, and lymphatic ducts, 

 and form as delicate pictures upon the retina 

 the bones are equally numerous, and as accurate 

 ly articulated the muscles perform their func 

 tions with as great precision and facility the 

 lymphatic and absorbent vessels are as numerous 

 and incessant in their operations and the heart 

 impels the blood through a thousand veins and ar 

 teries with as great a degree of rapidity and of 

 purity in the corporeal frame of a poor African 

 slave, who is daily smarting under the lash of an 

 unfeeling -planter, as in the body of the Emperor 

 ofChina, who sways his sceptre over half the in 

 habitants of the globe. All the external trappings 

 which fascinate the vulgar eye, and by which the 

 various ranks of mankind are distinguished, are 

 merely adventitious, and have no necessary con 

 nexion with the intrinsic dignity of man. They 

 are part of the consequences of the depravity of 

 our species : in most instances they are the re 

 sults of vanity, folly, pride, and frivolity ; and 

 they constitute no essential distinction between 

 man and man ; for a few paltry guineas would 

 suffice to deck the son of a peasant with all the 

 ornaments of a peer. 



Men are also nearly on a level in respect to 

 the mental faculties which they possess. Every 

 man, however low his station in the present 

 world, is endowed with a spiritual principle which 

 he received by &quot; the inspiration of the Al 

 mighty,&quot; which is superior to all the mechanism 

 and modifications of matter, and by which he is 

 allied to beings of a superior order. The facul 

 ties of consciousness, perception, memory, con 

 ception, imagination, judgment, reasoning, and 

 moral feeling, are common to men of all casts 

 and nations. The power of recollecting the past, 



and of anticipating the future of deducing con 

 clusions from premises previously demonstrated 

 of representing to the mind objects and scenes 

 which have long ceased to exist ; of forming in 

 the imagination new combinations of the objects 

 of sense ; of perceiving the qualities of moral ac 

 tions, and distinguishing between right and 

 wrong ; of recognizing a supreme intelligent 

 Agent in the movements of the universe, and of 

 making perpetual advances in knowledge and fe 

 licity ; faculties which distinguish man from all 

 the other tribes which people the earth, air, or 

 sea ; are possessed by the dwarfish Laplander and 

 the untutored peasant, as well as by the ruler of 

 kingdoms, the enlightened statesman, and the 

 man of science. It is true, indeed, that there is 

 a mighty difference among men in the direction 

 of these faculties, in the objects towards which 

 they are directed, in the cultivation they have 

 received, and in the degree of perfection to which 

 they have attained. There are innumerable gra 

 dations in the improvement and the energies ol 

 intellect, from the narrow range of thought pos 

 sessed by a Greenlander or an Esquimaux, to 

 the sublime and expansive views of a Bacon, or 

 a Newton. But, this difference depends more 

 on the physical and moral circumstances in 

 which they are placed than on any intrinsic dif 

 ference in the faculties themselves. Place the 

 son of a boor or of a Laplander in circumstances 

 favourable to the developement of his mental 

 powers, and afford him the requisite means for 

 directing and increasing their activity, and he 

 will display powers of intelligence equal to those 

 which are found in the highest ranks of civilized 

 life. A sound understanding, a correct, judg 

 ment, vigour of mind, control over the irascible 

 passions, and other mental endowments, though 

 destitute of polish, will as frequently be found 

 in the lower walks of life as jn the elevated ranks 

 of opulence and power. 



The philosopher, however, as well as the man 

 of rank, is apt to look down with a contemptuous 

 sneer on the narrow conceptions of the hus 

 bandman, the mechanic, and the peasant ; and is 

 disposed to treat them as if they were an inferior 

 species of intelligent beings. He does not al 

 ways consider that the profound and the subtle 

 speculations, which are dignified with the title of 

 philosophy, are frequently of less importance to 

 the progress of the human mind, and to the en 

 joyment of substantial comfort, than the deduc 

 tions of common sense and the dictates of a 

 sound though plain understanding : that they 

 torment him with feelings, doubts, and perplexi 

 ties, which sometimes shake the whole fabric ol 

 his knowledge, and lead him into labyrinths, out 

 of which he can scarcely extricate his way; 

 while the man of plain understanding, guided by 

 a few certain and important points of truth, pro 

 secutes the path of virtue with safety and success. 

 For it may be considered as an established 



