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Show 166 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE of human duration. But let a weak and infirm old age overtake them: let them experience calamities: let them feel but half the miferies which the wretched Africans undergo, and they will praife the goodnefs of Providence, who hath made them mortal; who hath prefcribed certain ordinary bounds to the life of man ; and who, by fuch a limitation, hath given all men this comfortable hope, that however perfecuted in life, a time will come, in the common courfe of nature, when their fuJferings will have an end. Such then is the nature of this fervitude that we can hardly expec:l: to find in thofc: who undergo it, even the glimpfe of genius. For if their minds are in a continual il:ate of deprellion, and if they have no expec:l:ations in life to awaken their abilities, and make them eminent, we cannot be furprized if a fullen gloomy il:upidity 1hould be the leading mark in their charac: l:er; or if they alould appear inferiour to thofe, who cjo not only enjoy the invaluable blellings of freedom, but h ave every profpec:l: before their eyes, that can allure * them. oF TIIE HuM AN SPECIES. them to exert their faculties. Now, if to thefe confiderations we add, that the wretched Africans are torn from their country in a il:ate of nature, and that in general, as long as their aavery continues, every obll:acle is placed in the way of their improvement, we 1ball have a fufficient anfwer to any argument that may be drawn from the inferiority of their capacities. It appears then, from the circumll:inces that have been mentioned, that to form a true judgment of the abilities of thefe unfortunate people, we mull:: either take a general view of them before their aavery commences, or confine our attention to fuch, as, after it has commenced, have had any opportunity given them of !hewing their genius either in arts or letters. If, upon fuch a fair and impartial view, there awuld be any reafon to fuppofe, that they are at all inferiour to others in the fame fituation, the argument will then gain fome of that weight anQ importance, which it wants at prefent. In their own country, where we are to fee them firft, we mull:: expec:l: that the profpec:l: L 4 will |