man is pre

virtue he

rule.

5 desert. But when a whole family, or some individual, III. 17. happens to be so pre-eminent in virtue as to surpass all When one others, then it is just that they should be the royal family eminent in and supreme over all, or that this one citizen should be ought to 6 king of the whole nation. For, as I said before a, to give them authority is not only agreeable to that ground of right which the founders of all states, whether aristocratical, or oligarchical, or again democratical, are accustomed to put forward; (for these all recognize the claim of excellence, although not the same excellence), 7 b but accords with the principle already laid down. For it would not be right to kill, or ostracise, or exile such a person, or require that he should take his turn in being governed. The whole is naturally superior to the part, and he who has this pre-eminence is in the relation of a 8 whole to a part. But if so, the only alternative is that he should have the supreme power, and that mankind should obey him, not in turn, but always. These are the conclusions at which we arrive respecting royalty and its various forms, and this is the answer to the question, whether it is or is not advantageous to states, and to whom, and how.

govern

be either

of the many

We maintain that the true forms of government are 18. three, and that the best must be that which is ad- The best ministered by the best, and in which there is one man, ment may or a whole family, or many persons, excelling in virtue, the rule of and both rulers and subjects are fitted, the one to rule, the one, or the others to be ruled, in such a manner as to attain the virtuous. most eligible life. We showed at the commencement of our enquiry that the virtue of the good man is necessarily State and the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect state. both beClearly then in the same manner, and by the same means come through which a man becomes truly good, he will frame the same a state [which will be truly good] whether aristocratical,

a

Cp. c. 9. § 15.

b Or: 'but differing in the manner already laid down.' Omitting kai apxew, which is inserted, without MS. authority, in Bekker's 2nd edit.

d

Cp. C. 4.

individual

virtuous in

manner.

III. 18. or under kingly rule, and the same education and the 1288 b. same habits will be found to make a good man and a good statesman and king.

Having arrived at these conclusions, we must proceed 2 to speak of the perfect state, and describe how it comes into being and is established. He who would proceed with the enquiry in due manner.

a

* Retaining the words of the MSS, ̓Ανάγκη δὴ τὸν μέλλοντα περὶ αὐτῆς ποιήσασθαι τὴν προσήκουσαν σκέψιν, which are omitted by Bekker in his 2nd edit.

BOOK IV.

problems

nastic art

IN all arts and sciences which embrace the whole of IV. 1. any subject, and are not restricted to a part only, it is The the province of a single art or science to consider all that of the gymappertains to a single subject. For example, the art of gymnastic considers not only the suitableness of different modes of training to different bodies (2), but what sort is absolutely the best (1); (for the absolutely best must suit that which is by nature best and best furnished with the means of life), and also what common form of training is 2 adapted to the great majority of men (4). And if a man does not desire the best habit of body or the greatest skill in gymnastics, which might be attained by him, still the trainer or the teacher of gymnastic should be able to impart any lower degree of either (3). The same principle equally holds in medicine and ship-building, and the making of clothes, and in the arts generally a.

3

lems of

for the

Hence it is obvious that government too is the sub- illustrate ject of a single science, which has to consider what kind the probof government would be best and most in accordance politics with our aspirations, if there were no external impedi- statesman. ment, and also what kind of government is adapted to particular states. For the best is often unattainable, and therefore the true legislator and statesman ought to be acquainted, not only with (1) that which is best in the abstract, but also with (2) that which is best relatively to 4 circumstances. We should be able further to say how a state may be constituted under any given conditions (3); both how it is originally formed and, when formed, how it may be longest preserved; the supposed state being so far from the very best that it is unprovided even with the conditions necessary for the very best; neither is it the best under the circumstances, but of an inferior type.

The numbers in this paragraph are made to correspond with the numbers in the next.

IV. 1.

The best

state for the majority.

mation of

the old as

creation of the new.

The 'pathology' of states.

He ought, moreover, to know (4) the form of govern- 5 ment which is best suited to states in general; for political writers, although they have excellent ideas, are often unpractical. We should consider, not only what form 6 of government is best, but also what is possible and what is easily attainable by all. There are some who would have none but the most perfect; for this many natural advantages are required. Others, again, speak 1289 a. of a more attainable form, and, although they reject the constitution under which they are living, they extol some one in particular, for example the Lacedaemonian". The refor- Any change of government which has to be introduced 7 should be one which men will be both willing and able hard as the to adopt, since there is quite as much trouble in the reformation of an old constitution as in the establishment of a new one, just as to unlearn is as hard as to learn. And therefore, in addition to the qualifications of the statesman already mentioned, he should be able to find remedies for the defects of existing constitutions". This he cannot do unless he knows how many forms of 8 a government there are. It is often supposed that there is only one kind of democracy and one of oligarchy. But this is a mistake; and, in order to avoid such mistakes, we must ascertain what differences there are in the constitutions of states, and in how many ways they are combined. The same political insight will enable a man 9 to know which laws are the best, and which are suited to different constitutions; for the laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution, and not the constitution to the laws. A constitution is the organization of offices 10 in a state, and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution: they are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed a Cp. ii. 6. § 16. * Cp. § 4.

• Or: 'laws, though in themselves distinct, show the character of the constitution.'

11 against offenders. So that we must know the number IV. 1. and varieties of the several forms of government, if only with a view to making laws. For the same laws cannot be equally suited to all oligarchies and to all democracies, and there is certainly more than one form both of democracy and of oligarchy.

a

2.

and aris

have been

discussed.

remain.

In our original discussion about governments we divided them into three true forms: kingly rule, aris- Royalty tocracy, and constitutional government, and three corre- tocracy sponding perversions-tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. already Of kingly rule and of aristocracy we have already spoken, Polity, for the enquiry into the perfect state is the same thing democracy, oligarchy, with the discussion of the two forms thus named, since tyranny, both imply a principle of virtue provided with external means. We have already determined in what aristocracy and kingly rule differ from one another, and when the latter should be established. In what follows we have to describe the so-called constitutional government, which bears the common name of all constitutions, and the other forms, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. 2 It is obvious which of the three perversions is the 'Corruptio worst, and which is the next in badness. That which is the perversion of the first and most divine is necessarily 1289 b. the worst. And just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a wellconstituted form; oligarchy is a little better, but a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

optimi pessima.'

on Plato.

3 A writer who preceded me has already made these A criticism distinctions, but his point of view is not the same as mine. For he lays down the principle that of all good constitutions (under which he would include a virtuous oligarchy and the like) democracy is the worst, but the best of bad ones. Whereas we maintain that they are b Cp. iii. 17. § 8.

a Book iii. 7; N. Eth. viii. 10.

Plato Polit. 303 A.