Excerpt from Extinction of Slavery: A Discourse in Commemoration of the Extinction of Slavery in the British Colonies, on the 1st of August, 1838Human'fi'rights had indeed been objects of contempla tion, but on no grand 'and comprehensive scale, with no quickening principles. Clanship, citizenship, nationality, the sympathies even of the wiser part went not beyond these narrow generalisations. A new spirit comes into the mind of Europe. Christianity extricates itself from the trammels in which Heathenism had for Centuries held it, and teaching the doctrine of man's spiritual equality, it expands the speculations of philosophy so as to embrace the whole of humankind. The science of morality undergoes a new birth. History serves for new and higher purposes. International rights are acknowledged, which gives rise to international law, and the way is pre pared for the settlement of the disputes of empires, hy'the peaceful arbitration of reason, instead of murderous appeals.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.