Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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