Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
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Plutarch <strong>and</strong> the Greece <strong>of</strong> His Age<br />
a soulless thing, though the justice <strong>of</strong> emancipation<br />
occupied his attention but little. Here again we find<br />
his practical ideas in the foreground. He is con<br />
cerned to make the best <strong>of</strong> the situation as he finds<br />
it.<br />
Slavery exists, is an ineradicable element <strong>of</strong> or<br />
ganized society <strong>and</strong> is coextensive with the human<br />
race. The best that the philosopher can do is to<br />
make sages <strong>of</strong> slaveholders, to the end that they treat<br />
their bondmen with justice <strong>and</strong> humaneness. Com<br />
pare the anecdotes <strong>of</strong> Plato <strong>and</strong> Archytas in De Sera,<br />
Chap. 5. According to Plutarch slaves have souls<br />
like other human beings, <strong>and</strong> are capable <strong>of</strong> mental<br />
<strong>and</strong> moral improvement; consequently masters have<br />
duties to perform toward them that are just as plain<br />
<strong>and</strong> just as imperative as those due to persons<br />
on the same social level with themselves.<br />
The prosperity <strong>of</strong> nations rests mainly upon the<br />
numbers <strong>and</strong> intelligence <strong>of</strong> its middle classes. It<br />
can everywhere be measured by the rise <strong>of</strong> this<br />
class. What wonder then that the nations were<br />
poor among whom it scarcely existed? Rome could<br />
not go on plundering interminably, <strong>and</strong> the riches<br />
<strong>of</strong> its provinces in time became exhausted because<br />
not replenished. All that the ancient world has<br />
left upon record for us, proceeds upon the assump<br />
tion <strong>of</strong> a large body <strong>of</strong> slaves <strong>and</strong> a small body <strong>of</strong> free<br />
citizens, <strong>and</strong> breathes a contempt for labor <strong>and</strong> trade.<br />
In most <strong>of</strong> the Greek states the commercial <strong>and</strong><br />
manufacturing class consisted chiefly <strong>of</strong> resident<br />
aliens who were also slaveholders, <strong>and</strong> no citizen was<br />
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