Natural slaves!

My theory of slavery is that people are naturally slaves and others are naturally masters. But is there any one intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature? For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule. Anyone who is ruled must be a slave, which does not seem at all right.
“ among barbarians no distinction is made between women and slaves, because there is no natural ruler among them: they are a community of slaves, male and female. Wherefore the poets say,
It is meet that Hellenes should rule over barbarians”
Natural slaves should have powerful bodies but be unable to rule themselves. They become very much like beasts of burden, except that unlike these beasts human slaves recognize that they need to be ruled. The problem with this theory is that is that the right kind of souls and bodies do not always go together! So, one could have the soul of a slave and the body of a freeman, and vice versa!because there are some in whom the body and soul are appropriate to natural slavery, that is a strong body and a weak soul. But still there are people who should naturally be slaves. It also seems that men naturally rule women and that barbarians are naturally more servile than Greeks! This seems like an odd, indeed arbitrary, way for the virtues of the soul to be distributed!

- aristotle