So help me heaven, I long and pray
for freedom! But I cannot look my masters boldly in the face; I still
value the poor body; I still set much store on its preservation whole
and sound.
But I can point thee out a free man, that thou mayest be no more in
search of an example. Diogenes was free. How so? Not because he was of
free parentage (for that, indeed, was not the case), but because he was
himself free. He had cast away every handle whereby slavery might lay
hold of him to enslave him, nor was it possible for any to approach
and take hold of him to enslave him. All things sat loose upon him--all
things were to him attached by but slender ties. Hadst thou seized upon
his possessions, he would rather have let them go than have followed
thee for them--aye, had it been even a limb, or mayhap his whole body;
and in like manner, relatives, friends, and country. For he knew whence
they came--from whose hands and on what terms he had received them.
His true forefathers, the Gods, his true Country, he never would
have abandoned; nor would he have yielded to any man in obedience and
submission to the one nor in cheerfully dying for the other. For he
was ever mindful that everything that comes to pass has its source and
origin there; being indeed brought about for the weal of that his true
Country, and directed by Him in whose governance it is.
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