.

There remains to be considered a remarkable and melancholy sub-section
of the law of slavery.

In every age degraded beings have made gain of the attractions of their
daughters. With them, the law attempted nothing of moral influence. But
it protected their children, and brought pressure to bear upon the
tempter, by a series of firm provisions, as bold as the age could bear,
and much in advance of the conscience of too many among ourselves
to-day.

The seduction of any unbetrothed maiden involved marriage, or the
payment of a dowry. And thus one door to evil was firmly closed (xxii.
16).

But when a man purchased a female slave, with the intention of making
her an inferior wife, whether for himself or for his son (such only are
the purchases here dealt with, and an ordinary female slave was treated
upon the same principles as a man), she was far from being the sport of
his caprice. If indeed he repented at once, he might send her back, or
transfer her to another of her countrymen upon the same terms, but when
once they were united she was protected against his fickleness. He might
not treat her as a servant or domestic, but must, even if he married
another and probably a chief wife, continue to her all the rights and
privileges of a wife. Nor was her position a temporary one, to her
damage, as that of an ordinary slave was, to his benefit.

And if there was any failure to observe these honourable terms, she
could return with unblemished reputation to her father's home, without
forfeiture of the money which had been paid for her (xxi. 7-11).

Does any one seriously believe that a system like the African slave
trade could have existed in such a humane and genial atmosphere as these
enactments breathed? Does any one who knows the plague spot and disgrace
of our modern civilisation suppose for a moment that more could have
been attempted, in that age, for the great cause of purity? Would to God
that the spirit of these enactments were even now respected! They would
make of us, as they have made of the Hebrew nation unto this day, models
of domestic tenderness, and of the blessings in health and physical
vigour which an untainted life bestows upon communities.

By such checks upon the degradation of slavery, the Jew began to learn
the great lesson of the sanctity of manhood. The next step was to teach
him the value of life, not only in the avenging of murder, but also in
the mitigation of such revenge. The blood-f