And indeed the use made of
slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both with
their bodies minister to the needs of life. Nature would like to
distinguish between the bodies of freemen and slaves, making the one
strong for servile labor, the other upright, and although useless
for such services, useful for political life in the arts both of war
and peace. But the opposite often happens- that some have the souls
and others have the bodies of freemen. And doubtless if men differed
from one another in the mere forms of their bodies as much as the
statues of the Gods do from men, all would acknowledge that the
inferior class should be slaves of the superior. And if this is true
of the body, how much more just that a similar distinction should
exist in the soul? but the beauty of the body is seen, whereas the
beauty of the soul is not seen. It is clear, then, that some men are
by nature free, and others slaves, and that for these latter slavery
is both expedient and right.
VI
But that those who take the opposite view have in a certain way
right on their side, may be easily seen. For the words slavery and
slave are used in two senses. There is a slave or slavery by law as
well as by nature. The law of which I speak is a sort of convention-
the law by which whatever is taken in war is supposed to belong to the
victors.
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