d, "is to love and to be loved." He regarded his slaves as inferior
members of his own family. How strong, yet how dignified, is his
condemnation of masters who sold their slaves when disabled by old age.
He protests that the fountain of goodness and humanity should never dry
up in a man. "For myself," he said, "I should never have the heart to
sell the ox which had long labored on my ground, and could no longer
work on account of old age, still less could I chase a slave from his
country, from the place where he has been nourished for so long,
and from the way of life to which he has been so long accustomed."
Sentiments like these were the natural precursors of the abolition of
slavery, as far as it could be abolished by moral considerations.

Epictetus, the great Stoic philosopher, who had himself been a slave,
taught the loftiest morality. Pascal admits that he was "one of the
philosophers of the world who have best understood the duty of man." He
disdained slavery from the point of view of the masters, as he abhorred
it from the point of view of the slaves. "As a healthy man," he said,
"does not wish to be waited upon by the infirm, or desire that those who
live with him should be invalids, the freeman should not allow himself
to be waited upon by slaves, or leave those who live with him in
servitude." It is idle to pretend, as Professor Schmidt of Strasburg
does, that the ideas of Epictetus are "colored with a reflection of
Christianity." The philosopher's one reference to the Galileans, by whom
he is thought to have meant the Christians, is somewhat contemptuous.
Professor Schmidt says he "misunderstood" the Galileans; but George
Long, the translator of Epictetus, is probably truer in saying that he
"knew little about the Christians, and only knew some examples of their
obstinate adherence to the new faith and the fanatical behavior of some
of the converts." It should be remembered that Epictetus was almost
a contemporary of St. Paul, and the accurate students of early
Christianity will be able to estimate how far it was likely, at that
time, to have influenced the philosophers of Rome.

Marcus Aurelius was one of the wisest and best of men. Emperor of the
civilised world, he lived a life of great simplicity, bearing all the
burdens of his high office, and drawing philosophy from the depths of
his own contemplation. His _Meditations_ were only written for his own
eyes; they were a kind of philosophical diary; and