The Ancient Greek Philosopher

I imagine an aged Greek slave, serving a Roman master with slavish flattery. I imagine him broken in body but vibrant in mind. He spends hours each day several spheres above all the others. His sight turned inward, he withdraws from daily light to seek light's origin in dark webs of the mind. He penetrates things other despair of understanding. From the world he expected nothing: he was speechless when the King paid the ransom of his freedom, and installed him a country villa. A free man, he teaches young men to be in bondage only to Truth and Goodness.