Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Natural History of Society in the Barbarous and Civilized State, Vol. 2: An Essay an Discovering the Origin and Course of Human Improvement
Domestic slavery appears to have been very mild at this time in Egypt, for Joseph enjoyed a considerable degree of freedom; and that females were not yet deprived of their natural liberty is obvious from the history of Potiphar's wife. A more important element. Of civilization, however, is the existence of a legal system of imprisonment, Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound.
It may appear whimsical to point out a prison as a sign of improvement, but unquestionably the existence of a system of legal punishment is evidence of advance ment, for it shews that the regular empire of public law has superseded the blind impulses of private revenge. In a less civilized country than Egypt then was, Potiphar would have slain or mutilated Joseph on the spot.
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