st task and the most
direct application. Dio Chrysostom declared the evil effects of slavery
on the masters, sensuality, languor, and dependence. He pointed out the
wide difference between personal status and character,--the possible
nobility of a slave and the possible servility of a freeman.[794] Seneca
especially taught the abstract philosophy of liberalism, kindness, and
humanity. He represented a movement in public opinion. Pliny cultivated
all the graces of the debonair gentleman. Dill compares him to a "kindly
English squire." The inscriptions show that "his household was by no
means a rare exception."[795] Slaves had such perquisites and chances
that "the slave could easily purchase his own freedom." "The trusted
slave was often actually a partner, with a share of the profits of an
estate, or he had a commission on the returns."[796] Plutarch's whole
philosophy of life is gentle and kindly. It is unemotional and
nonstimulating. The neostoics had the character of an esoteric sect. We
never are sure that their writings are any more than rhetorical
exercises, or that they act or expect others to act by their precepts.
Slavery was such a fact in the social order that no one could conceive
of the abolition of it, or propose abolition as a thing within the scope
of statesmanship.

+294. The industrial colleges.+ The Romans had a genius for association
and organization. Under the republic artisans began to unite in
colleges. In the last century of the republic the political leaders took
alarm at these unions and forbade them. Caesar and Augustus abolished the
right of association. In the second century a certain number of
societies existed, in spite of prohibitions,--miners, salt workers,
bakers, and boatmen. Until Justinian all such unions were carefully
watched as dangerous to public peace and order. In the civil law they
were authorized, and made like natural persons.[797] The fashion of them
became very popular. "The colleges in which the artisans and traders of
the Antonine age grouped themselves are almost innumerable, even in the
records which time has spared. They represent almost every conceivable
branch of industry, or special skill, or social service."[798] "Men
formed themselves into these groups for the most trivial or whimsical
reasons, or for no reason at all, except that they lived in the same
quarter and often met. From the view which the inscriptions give us of
the interior of some of these clubs, it