He only nodded, and they both remained silent till they found themselves
in a quiet side street. Then the girl looked up at him inquiringly, and
began again:

"And now you hope for a second Spartacus? Or will you yourself lead a
rebellion of the slaves? You are the man for it, and I can be secret."

"If it has to be, why not?" he replied, and his eyes sparkled with a
strange fire. But seeing that she shrank from him, a smile passed over
his countenance, and he added in a soothing tone: "Do not be alarmed, my
child; what must come will come, without another Spartacus, or bloodshed,
or turmoil. And you, with your clear eyes and your kind heart, would you
find it difficult to distinguish right from wrong, and to feel for the
sorrows of others--? Yes, perhaps! For what will not custom excuse
and sanctify? You can pity the bird which is shut into a cage too small
for it, or the mule which breaks down under too heavy a load, and the
cruelty which hurts them rouses your indignation. But for the man whom
a terrible fate has robbed of his freedom, often through the fault of
another, whose soul endures even greater torments than his despised body,
you have no better comfort than the advice which might indeed serve a
philosopher, but which to him is bitter mockery: to bear his woes with
patience. He is only a slave, bought, or perhaps inherited. Which of
you ever thinks of asking who gave you, who are free, the right to
enslave half of all the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and to rob them
of the highest prerogative of humanity? I know that many philosophers
have spoken of slavery as an injustice done by the strong to the weak:
but they shrugged their shoulders over it nevertheless, and excused it as
an inevitable evil; for, thought they, who will serve me if my slave is
regarded as my equal? You only smile at this confusion of the meditative