The gratitude and filial attachment which a child constantly preserves for those who gave him being, is always proportioned to the education he has received from them, and to the tie which has been mutually formed on both sides, during the state of non-age.
Societies at large ought to act precisely on the same principle in forming colonies, since these are nothing else but their own children, or the superfluity of their population.
When therefore a large Society thus gives birth to a small one, in the establishing thereof, can it possess a more noble view than that of regarding in the first place the interest of mankind, or universal Society, and afterwards the advantage of its own colony or Society in particular? Standing thus between them both, will not the happiness of both center in itself? Does not the father of a family rejoice in the happiness both of his country and his children? But is there any colony existing founded on these truly humane principles? Does not the education which the present colonies have received, and do still receive from their interested and imprudent parents, prove the rankest hatred between beings that ought to be united by the tenderest ties? Whence proceeds the cause, that smaller societies have been compelled by misunderstanding to separate from the greater which gave them existence, but perverted education, combined with the false principle of endeavouring to keep the child, arrived to its maturity perpetually in leading firings, like an infant?
Since my short stay in London, I have weighed with the stricted impartiality the argument for and against slavery; I hope, therefore, I may be permitted to communicate my ideas on this delicate and interesting subject, making man always the principal object of comparison, as being the most exact form, and the most perfect model existing in the creation.
No one will deny that the two distinct and principal faculties, which essentially constitute man, are Will and the Understanding: the former is derived from some kind of love, and being from the birth possessed by man in common with all other animals, he would become even more savage and destructive, if he had not the opportunity in society of cultivating his other faculty, the Understanding, which by instruction is capable of infinite elevation. But when this latter faculty comes to maturity, it then acquires a right of directing the Will in the way most conformable to wisdom, and bears the same relation to it as a helm to a ship, which is constantly directed thereby in the course most favourable to the voyage.
This elevation of the Understanding above the Will or Passions, is the same as what we call Education or Civilization, Education with respect to every man in particular, and civilization to mankind in general.
The greatest human societies may in general be divided into two classes; the civilized and the uncivilized; and the obligations the former are under to the latter, are precisely the same as those of parents towards their children. From this analogy between children and uncivilized nations, it may then easily be concluded, that the one as well as the other are governed by their passions, in consequence of their understanding not being cultivated.
If we feel within us an interior but distinct voice, dictating that we ought to seek our own happiness in promoting that of our posterity; in ascending from particular to general, we shall also feel that the instructed and civilized nations for their own advantage must of necessity act unanimously for the happiness of the barbarous and uncivilized.