quote · Legacy record

There is no flesh in man’s obdurate heart, It does not feel for man; the natural bond Of brotherhood is severed, as the flax That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not coloured like his own; and having power T’ enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause, Dooms and devotes him as a lawful prey. ***** Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys; And worse than all, and most to be deplored, As human nature’s broadest, foulest blot, Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that mercy, with a bleeding heart, Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast. Then what is man? and what man seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush, And hang his head, to think himself a man.

There is no flesh in man’s obdurate heart, It does not feel for man; the natural bond Of brotherhood is severed, as the flax That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not coloured like his own; and having power T’ enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause, Dooms and devotes him as a lawful prey. ***** Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys; And worse than all, and most to be deplored, As human nature’s broadest, foulest blot, Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that mercy, with a bleeding heart, Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast. Then what is man? and what man seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush, And hang his head, to think himself a man.

Approximate author period: c. 1765 AD · early modern