Book XV.
Chap. 16.The law of Moses was extremely severe. "If any one struck his slave so that he died under his hand, he was to be punished; but if he survived a day or two, he was not, because he was as his money." Strange chat a civil law should thus amongst these people relax the law of nature!
By a law of the Greeks[1] a slave too roughly treated by his master, might insist upon being sold to another. In the latter times there was a law of the same nature[2] at Rome. A master displeased with his slave, and a slave with his master, ought to be separated.
When a citizen uses a slave of another ill, the latter ought to have liberty to complain before the judge. The laws[3] of Plato and of most nations took away from slaves the right of natural defence. It was necessary then that they should give them a civil defence.
At Sparta, slaves could have no justice against either insults or injuries. So excessive was their misery, that they were not only the slaves of a citizen, but also of the public; they belonged to all, as well as to one. At Rome, when they considered the injury done to a Have, they had regard only to the[4] interest of the master. In the breach of the Aquilian law, they confounded a wound given to a beast, and that given to a slave; they regarded only the diminution of their value. At Athens[5] he who had abused the slave of another, was punished severely, and sometimes even with death. The law of Athens was very reason-
