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Ascent from an inferior class was absolutely impossible: as well might a vegetable become a man.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner uses a metaphor to describe the impossibility of social mobility within a rigid caste system.
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Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
Out of this pernicious prejudice have proceeded that persecution and neglect which are the too frequent lot of the world's pioneers.
Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
The first is a heavenly sentiment, from God: the other is a device of this world.
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