More beauteous far, and far majestic more.
Odyssey, tr. Sotheby, Book X. 398-407.
The Christian religion is equal in its operation, and is accommodated to every nation on the globe. It robs no one of his freedom, violates none of his inherent rights, on the ground that he is a slave by nature, as pretended; and it well becomes your Majesty to banish so monstrous an oppression from your kingdoms in the beginning of your reign, that the Almighty may make it long and glorious.—Las Casas, Address before Charles V.: Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico, Vol. I. p. 379, Note.
In a clause of his will Cortés expresses a doubt whether it is right to exact personal service from the natives, and commands that a strict inquiry shall be made into the nature and value of such services as he had received, and that in all cases a fair compensation shall be allowed for them. Lastly, he makes this remarkable declaration: “It has long been a question, whether one can conscientiously hold property in Indian slaves. Since this point has not yet been determined, I enjoin it on my son Martin and his heirs that they spare no pains to come to an exact knowledge of the truth, as a matter which deeply concerns the conscience of each of them, no less than mine.”—Cortés, his Testament: Ibid., Vol. III. p. 345.
Mais certes, s’il y a rien de clair et d’apparent en la nature, et en quoy il ne soit pas permis de faire l’aveugle, c’est cela que nature, le ministre de Dieu et la gouvernante des hommes, nous a tous faits de mesme forme, et, comme il semble, à mesme moule, afin de nous entrecognoistre tous pour compaignons, ou plus tost frères.—La Boëtie, De la Servitude Volontaire: Œuvres, ed. Feugère, (Paris, 1846,) p. 26.