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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Seneca: His Character <strong>and</strong> Environment<br />
If the good man is kind to his beast, he cannot fail<br />
to treat kindly his bondman. It does not seem in<br />
consistent with the general tenor <strong>of</strong> Seneca s writings<br />
to assume that he thought the best way to mitigate<br />
the condition <strong>of</strong> the slaves was to indoctrinate their<br />
owners with a philosophy that would accord to them<br />
kind treatment, rather than to seek to bring about<br />
their liberation.<br />
Besides, the slaves themselves were not <strong>of</strong>ten con<br />
scious <strong>of</strong> their unfortunate legal status. The best<br />
they desired for themselves was that they might fall<br />
into the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> a good master. That such men<br />
were not altogether wanting, even among the Romans,<br />
is evident from the many<br />
shown by<br />
their slaves.<br />
instances <strong>of</strong> rare devotion<br />
It is one <strong>of</strong> the suprising things in the history <strong>of</strong><br />
mankind that the progress <strong>of</strong><br />
the anti=slavery senti<br />
ment was so rapid when the cause <strong>of</strong> the slave had<br />
obtained a hearing before the bar <strong>of</strong> public con<br />
science. Slavery had existed from time immemorial.<br />
The wrongs<br />
it condoned, the evils entailed upon its<br />
victims, attracted but little attention until the close<br />
<strong>of</strong> the last century. Within less than a hundred<br />
years after the agitation had begun there was not a<br />
slave recognized as such by law in Christendom.<br />
The contemplation <strong>of</strong> this fact may well teach polit<br />
ical prophets to be careful in their predictions as to<br />
what will or will not happen in the future.<br />
In the foregoing essay I have, for the most part<br />
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