Appendix 2. (680).
Aristotle says that `by nature some people are obviously free and others are bond-servants' (Polit., 1, 3, 5). This celebrated passage shows that the truth I am expounding is accepted not only by Aristotle but by the common sense of the human race, which the philosopher, by saying `it is obvious', claims to follow. Many modern thinkers have argued vigorously against this opinion of Aristotle because they have only partly understood it. He does not say, we must note, that `some people are born bond-servants', as if he meant that the children of those made bond-servants by the civil law were justly made bond-servants. He says some `are bond-servants by nature, that is, necessarily and justly subject to others, because relative to others their intellectual faculties are imperfect. This interpretation is so true that, after saying some people are bond-servants by nature', he adds that they are justly bond-servants because their servitude is useful to them. He is obviously speaki ng about a natural, limited subjection that by its nature does not harm but helps them.
Baroli defends Aristotle against the moderns who accuse Aristotle of favouring slavery in the ancient world (Diritto Naturale, 89), and cites another passage that removes all doubt by revealing Aristotle's true teaching on legal servitude. By law, the philosopher says, `one person is certainly a bond-servant, another either free or a master, but the two are not different by nature. The difference (effected by positive law) therefore is unjust because it is does violence or involves harm' (Polit., 1, 3). Aristotle's reason for rejecting the old legal slavery coincides with our principle of jural resentment. He places the harm in violence, that is, in acting against another's will and therefore with resentment on the part of the one suffering the action. Finally, the place where he says `all servitude is against nature' (Polit., 1, 4) must be understood as against human nature, which is intelligent and therefore capable of understandin g the consequences of actions and enjoying the freedom of action which flows from intelligence.
Furthermore, the natural superiority we are discussing is revealed not only in the feeling of individuals but in the feeling of peoples relative to other peoples. We can easily be convinced of this by reflecting on those places of Aristotle where he speaks about the natural superiority of Greece over the other nations. He is certainly not stating his own thought on the matter but the consciousness of all the Greeks expressed when Euripides makes Iphigenia say to Clytemnestra, `The Greeks, Mother, must indeed command the barbarians, not the barbarians the Greeks. The barbarians are naturally bond-servants, the Greeks free' (Iphigenia at Aulis, act. 4).
A civilised people always feels like this towards a primitive people. Unfortunately human perversity and pride abuse the feeling. My intention however is to find (if possible) some traces of upright human nature under the devastation caused by passions.