O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a tender and benignant mother, to others a most cruel and ruthless stepmother? I see thy children given into slavery to others without ever receiving any benefit, and in lieu of any reward for the services they have done for them they are repaid by the severest punishments.

The passage is a lament against the apparent injustice built into the natural and social order. Addressing “Nature” as a capricious parent, the speaker contrasts those who receive nurture and advantage with those treated like a “stepmother’s” children—abandoned, exploited, and punished. The imagery of being “given into slavery” suggests a broader moral protest: labor and service do not reliably yield reward, and the vulnerable can be trapped in systems that extract their work while returning suffering. Read this way, the quote frames inequality not merely as human cruelty but as something that feels cosmically sanctioned, intensifying its bitterness and urgency.