To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm.

For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing.
"Every conversation of the cottagers now opened new wonders to me.
While I listened to the instructions which Felix bestowed upon the Arabian, the strange system of human society was explained to me.

I heard of the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty, of rank, descent, and noble blood.
"The words induced me to turn towards myself.

I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow creatures were high and unsullied descent united with riches.

A man might be respected with only one of these advantages, but without either he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few! And what was I?
Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property.