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CHAP. IV.

It will be proper to say something here concerning the situation of the
unfortunate men, who were thus doomed to a life of servitude. To
enumerate their various employments, and to describe the miseries which
they endured in consequence, either from the severity, or the long and
constant application of their labour, would exceed the bounds we have
proposed to the present work. We shall confine ourselves to their
_personal treatment_, as depending on the power of their masters, and
the protection of the law. Their treatment, if considered in this light,
will equally excite our pity and abhorrence. They were beaten, starved,
tortured, murdered at discretion: they were dead in a civil sense; they
had neither name nor tribe; were incapable of a judicial process; were
in short without appeal. Poor unfortunate men! to be deprived of all
possible protection! to suffer the bitterest of injuries without the
possibility of redress! to be condemned unheard! to be murdered with
impunity! to be considered as dead in that state, the very members of
which they were supporting by their labours!

Yet such was their general situation: there were two places however,
where their condition, if considered in this point of view, was more
tolerable. The Ægyptian slave, though perhaps of all others the greatest
drudge, yet if he had time to reach the temple[016] of Hercules, found a
certain retreat from the persecution of his master; and he received
additional comfort from the reflection, that his life, whether he could
reach it or not, could not be taken with impunity. Wise and salutary