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Show x68 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE will be unfavourable. They are mofily in a favage fl:ate. Their powers of mind are limited to few objects. Their ideas are confequently few. It appears, however, that they follow the fame mode of life, and exercife the fame arts, as the ancell:ors of thofe very Europeans, who boafl: of their great fuperiority, are defcribed to have done in the fame uncultivated fl:ate. This appears from the Nubian's Geography, the writings of Leo, the Moor, and all the fubfequent hill:ories, which thofe, who have vifited the African continent, have written from their own infpection. Hence three conclufions; that their abilities are futlicient for their fituation ;-that they are as great, as thofe of other people have been, in the fame fl:age of fociety ;-and that they are as great as thofe of any civilized people whatever, when the degree of the barbarifm of the one is drawn into a comparifon with that of the civilization of the other. Let us now follow them to the colonies. They are carried over in the unfavourable fituation defcribed. It is obferved here that though their abilities cannot be e!l:imated ~ighl oF TilE HuMAN SPECIES. high from a want of cultivation, they ~re yet various, and that they vary in proportwn as the nation, from which they have been brought, has advanced more or Iefs in ~he fcale of facial life. This obfervatwn, whtch is fa frequently made, is of great importance: for if their abilities expand in proportion to the improvement of their fl:ate, it is a clear indication, that if they were equally improved, they would be equally ingenious. j3ut ,here, before we confider any opportunities that may be afforded them, let it be remembered that even their moll: poliJhed fituation may be called barbarous, and that this circumfiance, ihould they appear lefs docile than others, may be confidered as a fuflicient anfwer to any objetl:ion that may be made to their capacities. Notwithll:anding this, when they are put to the mechanical arts, they do not difcover a want of ingenuity. They attain them in as ihort a time as the Europeans, and arrive at a degree of excellence equal to that of their teachers. This is a .fact, almofl: univerfally known, and affords us this proof, that having learned ',¥ith facilitr fuch of the mechanical arts, as |