that only those who actually deserve it, should meet this fate;658 that the accidents of life may bring even the noblest of mankind into slavery;659 and that only non-Greeks are ignoble and worthy of it.660 He even insists that the terms “slave-master,” “freeman,” “slave,” when rightly used, imply a certain virtue or the lack of it, and therefore that to be justly a master, one must be morally superior.661 The question of the possession of the higher virtues by slaves is recognized by him to be a difficult problem, for an affirmative answer breaks down his distinction of “natural” slave, yet it seems paradoxical to deny these virtues to him as a human being.662 Nor can the difficulty be avoided by positing for the slave a mere difference in degree of virtue, for the distinction between ruler and subject must be one of kind.663 In any event, temperance and justice are necessary even for good slave service.664 Aristotle therefore evades the difficulty, and begs the question by concluding that both master and slave must share in virtue, but differently, in accord with their respective stations.665
With this admission, he places slaves on