of, but only of that which, through its evil, violent nature, impels toward godlessness, insolence, and injustice – subduing and casting such natures out through death, banishment, and the utmost disgrace; whereas the kingly art subjugates those natures that lie in crudeness and baseness to the servile race; and Aristotle recognizes as belonging to this class whatever, by its nature, is not its own but another’s – that which relates to a spirit as a body does.

But the relation of this [element] – which by its own nature belongs to another, and does not have its spirit within itself – to the absolutely self-subsistent individuality, is capable, according to its form, of being twofold: namely, either a relation of the individuals of this estate, as particulars, to the individuals of the first, as particulars; or [a relation] of universal to universal. That relation of slavery has, in the empirical appearance of the universality of the Roman empire, vanished of itself, in the loss of absolute ethical life; and with the debasement of the noble estate, the two previously particular estates became equal to one another, and with the cessation of freedom, slavery necessarily ceased as well. Inasmuch as the principle of formal unity and equality had to make itself prevail, it sublated, in general, the inner true difference of the estates, and, in the first place, brought about neither the separation of estates posited above, still less the form of their separation conditioned by it – according to which, under the form of universality, they stand only as whole estate to whole estate, in a relation of domination and dependence, such that even in this relation the two terms standing in the relation remain universal; whereas, by contrast, in the relation of slavery it is the form of particularity that is determining for it, and it is not estate against estate, but rather this unity of each part is dissolved in the real relation, so that individuals are dependent upon individuals. The principle of universality and equality first had to take possession of the whole in such a way that it put a mingling of the two estates in the place of a separation; in this mingling, under the law of formal unity, the first estate is in truth wholly sublated, and the second made into the sole people; the image of which change Gibbon expresses in these terms: the long peace and uniform dominion of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison into the vital powers of the empire. The dispositions of men were gradually brought to one level, the fire of genius extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated. Personal courage remained, but they no longer possessed this public courage, which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honor, the presence of danger, and the habit of command

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