a man and
his wife shall leave to his and her father and mother their own
dwelling-places, and themselves go as to a colony and dwell there, and
visit and be visited by their parents; and they shall beget and bring up
children, handing on the torch of life from one generation to another,
and worshipping the Gods according to law for ever.

In the next place, we have to consider what sort of property will be
most convenient. There is no difficulty either in understanding or
acquiring most kinds of property, but there is great difficulty in what
relates to slaves. And the reason is, that we speak about them in a way
which is right and which is not right; for what we say about our slaves
is consistent and also inconsistent with our practice about them.

MEGILLUS: I do not understand, Stranger, what you mean.

ATHENIAN: I am not surprised, Megillus, for the state of the Helots
among the Lacedaemonians is of all Hellenic forms of slavery the most
controverted and disputed about, some approving and some condemning
it; there is less dispute about the slavery which exists among the
Heracleots, who have subjugated the Mariandynians, and about the
Thessalian Penestae. Looking at these and the like examples, what ought
we to do concerning property in slaves? I made a remark, in passing,
which naturally elicited a question about my meaning from you. It was
this:--We know that all would agree that we should have the best and
most attached slaves whom we can get. For many a man has found his
slaves better in every way than brethren or sons, and many times they
have saved the lives and property of their masters and their whole
house--such tales are well known.

MEGILLUS: To be sure.

ATHENIAN: But may we not also say that the soul of the slave is utterly
corrupt, and that no man of sense ought to trust them? And the wisest of
our poets, speaking of Zeus, says:

'Far-seeing Zeus takes away half the understanding of men whom the day
of slavery subdues.'

Different persons have got these two different notions of slaves in
their minds--some of them utterly distrust their servants, and, as if
they were wild beasts, chastise them with goads and whips, and make
their souls three times, or rather many times, as slavish as they were
before;--and others do just the opposite.

MEGILLUS: True.

CLEINIAS: Then what are we to do in our own country, Stranger, seeing
that there are such differences in the treatment of slaves by their
own