28

betrays to servants, tempers and vices, carefully concealed from equals.
Hence, that disregard of their comforts and feelings, which engenders
hostility and insolence of which masters so frequently complain.
The accidental difference of colour and condition, does not
change the nature of man, and in the lowest situation, his perceptions
and feelings will be the same as of those in the highest. In the dissimilar-
ity of condition, we forget the similarity of nature, and offend, where
we might conciliate--beget hatred, where we might create love, and
then complain of infidelity and ingratitude. The duty of the master
tho' differing from the duty of the servant, is equally inperative,
and no one who neglects his own, should complain of failures in others.
Self respect commands the respect of others--but when we
forget our own rights, how can we hope that others will remember
them. No one conscious of weakness or vice, can feel this
self respect and consequently cannot inspire it. Virtue, and virtue alone has this
high privilege and such is the majesty of virtue, that it imparts dignity
to poverty and without it wealth is despicable.