But the whole system of life is full of divine and memorable compensations, and Epictetus experienced them.

God kindles the light of genius where He will, and He can inspire the highest and most regal thoughts even into the meanest slave:-- "Such seeds are scattered night and day By the soft wind from Heaven, And in the poorest human clay Have taken root and thriven." What were the accidents--or rather, what was "the unseen Providence, by man nicknamed chance"-- which assigned Epictetus to the house of Epaphroditus we do not know.

To a heart refined and noble there could hardly have been a more trying position.

The slaves of a Roman _familia_ were crowded together in immense gangs; they were liable to the most violent and capricious punishments; they might be subjected to the most degraded and brutalising influences.

Men sink too often to the level to which they are supposed to belong.