Introduction and translation

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Clarendon Press, 1885

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Page lxxiii - For as we have many members In one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ and every one members one of another.
Page 5 - A social instinct is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first founded the state was the greatest of benefactors. For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all...
Page 86 - For the many, of whom each individual is but an ordinary person, when they meet together may very likely be better than the few good, if regarded not individually but collectively, just as a feast to which many contribute is better than a dinner provided out of a single purse.
Page 9 - It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and that for these latter slavery is both expedient and right.
Page 215 - Clearly then the best limit of the population of a state is the largest number which suffices for the purposes of life, and can be taken in at a single view.
Page 244 - ... looks after his own children separately, and gives them separate instruction of the sort which he thinks best; the training in things which are of common interest should be the same for all.
Page 3 - When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite selfsufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.
Page 4 - Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either above humanity, or below it; he is the Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one...
Page 7 - But is there any one thus 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? There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and of fact. 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.
Page 8 - Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.

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