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Athenian
Ath. And is not the opposite kind of language also used,—that the soul of a slave has no soundness in it, and that a sensible man should never trust that class at all? And our wisest poet, too, in speaking of Zeus, declared that—Of half their wits far-thundering Zeus bereavesThose men on whom the day of bondage falls.Hom. Od. 17.322Thus each party adopts a different attitude of mind: the one places no trust at all in the servant-class, but, treating them like brute beasts, with goads and whips they make the servants’ souls not merely thrice but fifty times enslaved; whereas the other party act in precisely the opposite way.
Clinias
Clin. Since this difference of opinion exists, Stranger, what ought we to do about our own country, in regard to the owning of slaves and their punishment?
Athenian
Ath. Well now, Clinias, since man is an intractable creature, it is plain that he is not at all likely to be or become easy to deal with in respect of the necessary distinction between slave and free-born master in actual experience.
Clinias
Clin. That is evident.
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