Chap. XI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 227 



Hercdotus and Diodorus Siculus, in vvliich there is not a word faid 

 of flaves among them, -vvho, it they had exiiled, muft have made a 

 ^lals cf men very different from the other clafles which they men- 

 tioned, not belonging to the public, like thefe other clafles, but the 

 property of their mafters ; and if there were any doubt in the mat- 

 ter, the pra<ftice ot India, which certainly got from Egvpr its whole 

 political fyftem, does, in my opinion, make the matter quite clear - 

 For Diodorus tells us, that in his lime there were no flaves in India. 

 And I have information, which I can depend upon, that there are 

 none at prefent among the native Indians, that is, the Hindoos- 

 and, indeed, where there were men of all trades ready at hand to 

 fupply the wants of every man and every family, there was no 

 need that men fhould be kept in private families for that purpofe, 

 as they were among the Greeks and Romans. And, I think, fla- 

 very, confidered in a political view, is a bad inAItution ; for it is a 

 government within a government ; and it is certainly improper, 

 that citizens of the fame ftate fhould be governed by the arbitrary 

 will of any other citizen, and not by the laws of the ftate. And, 

 accordingly, in lome countries, it has produced a great deal of mif- 

 •chief by the infurredion of Haves, and their revolt from fuch an 

 unnatural government. The Romans were engaged for fome years in 

 a dangerous war \Servi/e Bellum, as they called it,) with the flaves 

 of Sicily and of the Southern parts of Italy ; and the inhabitants of 

 Argos in Greece had a long war with their rebellious flaves, in 

 which they at laft prevailed with much difficulty "*. It appears, 

 however, that fometimes a man from another country was fold in 

 Fgypt for a flave, as Jofeph was, by the Iflimaelites, to Potipher; 

 but there is not the leaft evidence that any of the Egyptians were 

 flaves, or that there was fuch an order of men in Egypt. It does 

 not appear, that Ofiris brought one captive from India to Egypt. 

 Sefoftris, indeed, returned to Egypt from his conquefts with a great 



F f 3 number 



* Herodotus, lib. 6. cap. 83. 



