18 
Their Igno- 
rance in 
Religion 
compared 
with fome 
other Na- 
tions, 
The Natural FHiiftory of the Book. I. 
~----- Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes 
Exmollit mores, nec finit effe feros. ae 
eee | Ovid. de Ponto, II. 9. 47- 
T’ imbibe foft Arts, and yield to Learning’s Sway, 
Soon wears the Edge of Savagenefs away. 
On the other hand, when they are fo unfortunate as to have Owners 
unpolifhed in their Manners, and infatiable of Riches (who, like the 
Egyptian Tyrants, require Brick without Straw, or, more literally, exa& 
fevere Labour from an hungry Belly, or a naked Back), they have f{carce a 
Gleam of Reft from hard Toils, and heavy Stripes, but whilft Sleep, with 
its fhort Interval, eludes the painful Scene, which muft again be renewed 
with the returning Dawn. 
- Such Task-matfters (23) confider not, that Compaffion to the Mifera- 
Ele is a juft Debt ; and that this humane Difpofition, as Cicero juftly 
obferves, is not the Inftitution of worldly Policy, is not the bare Effeét 
of any particular Cuftom, but the univerfal Voice of Nature, whofe 
Dictates the Brave, the Generous, and the Good, in every Age, and in 
every Nation, hear and obey: For, although God fuffered the Children 
of I/rael to be made Slaves in Eg ypz, till fuch wholfome Severity recalled 
them to their Duty ; yet he brought Plagues upon the Eg yprians for their 
Cruelty and Inhumanity towards them. 
The obvious and natural Inference that we may and ought to draw 
from fo many complicated Scenes of Mifery, in the Condition of fo 
many Thoufands of our Fellow-creatures (who are continually liable to 
the Infults of the Imperious, and the Lufts of the Debauched, and whofe 
own and their Childrens Childrens inceffant Labour will never be at an 
End, but with their Lives), is gratefully to acknowlege the Happinefs of 
living where neither our Lives nor Fortunes are at the Mercy of any 
tyrannical Oppreffor. 
How happy, I fay, are we, when compared with the feveral Nations 
above-mentioned, whofe Ignorance in all Knowlege about Religion is fo 
great, that, in their original native Country, their Adoration is often 
paid to Grocodiles, Rivers, Snakes, and certain coloured Fowls ! 
Howfoever ridiculous the Cuftom of the Eg yptians may appear in 
worfhiping Beetles and Crocodiles, yet there is fome Shadow of Reafon 
at leaft of Excufe, to be given for this their Extravagancy ; for, as fhe 
Paflion of Fear is almoft univerfally predominant, as thefe Beetles came 
fome Years in great and numerous Swarms from Affyria into Egypt, and 
almoft. 
(23) It feems by the following Paffage from Florace, that the Treatment of the Romans of their Slaves 
was not lefs fevere, than that of the prefent Age ; for the Poet, puttin, Mena, P, A 
mind of his former Slavery, defcribes him thus : at z Hehe Freed-man, ie 
Tbericis perufte funibus latus, 
Et crura dura compede. Hor. Epode 4. 
