BOOK I - CHAPTER II

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_ Now if in this particular science any one would attend to its original
seeds, and their first shoot, he would then as in others have the
subject perfectly before him; and perceive, in the first place, that
it is requisite that those should be joined together whose species
cannot exist without each other, as the male and the female, for the
business of propagation; and this not through choice, but by that
natural impulse which acts both upon plants and animals also, for the
purpose of their leaving behind them others like themselves. It is
also from natural causes that some beings command and others obey,
that each may obtain their mutual safety; for a being who is endowed
with a mind capable of reflection and forethought is by nature the
superior and governor, whereas he whose excellence is merely corporeal
is formect to be a slave; whence it follows that the different state
of master [1252b] and slave is equally advantageous to both. But there
is a natural difference between a female and a slave: for nature is
not like the artists who make the Delphic swords for the use of the
poor, but for every particular purpose she has her separate
instruments, and thus her ends are most complete, for whatsoever is
employed on one subject only, brings that one to much greater
perfection than when employed on many; and yet among the barbarians, a
female and a slave are upon a level in the community, the reason for
which is, that amongst them there are none qualified by nature to
govern, therefore their society can be nothing but between slaves of
different sexes. For which reason the poets say, it is proper for the
Greeks to govern the barbarians, as if a barbarian and a slave were by
nature one. Now of these two societies the domestic is the first, and
Hesiod is right when he says, "First a house, then a wife, then an ox
for the plough," for the poor man has always an ox before a household
slave. That society then which nature has established for daily
support is the domestic, and those who compose it are called by
Charondas _homosipuoi_, and by Epimenides the Cretan _homokapnoi_; but
the society of many families, which was first instituted for their
lasting, mutual advantage, is called a village, and a village is most
naturally composed of the descendants of one family, whom some persons
call homogalaktes, the children and the children's children thereof:
for which reason cities were originally governed by kings, as the
barbarian states now are, which are composed of those who had before
submitted to kingly government; for every family is governed by the
elder, as are the branches thereof, on account of their relationship
thereunto, which is what Homer says, "Each one ruled his wife and
child;" and in this scattered manner they formerly lived. And the
opinion which universally prevails, that the gods themselves are
subject to kingly government, arises from hence, that all men formerly
were, and many are so now; and as they imagined themselves to be made
in the likeness of the gods, so they supposed their manner of life
must needs be the same. And when many villages so entirely join
themselves together as in every respect to form but one society, that
society is a city, and contains in itself, if I may so speak, the end
and perfection of government: first founded that we might live, but
continued that we may live happily. For which reason every city must
be allowed to be the work of nature, if we admit that the original
society between male and female is; for to this as their end all
subordinate societies tend, and the end of everything is the nature of
it. For what every being is in its most perfect state, that certainly
is the nature of that being, whether it be a man, a horse, or a house:
besides, whatsoever produces the final cause and the end which we
[1253a] desire, must be best; but a government complete in itself is
that final cause and what is best. Hence it is evident that a city is
a natural production, and that man is naturally a political animal,
and that whosoever is naturally and not accidentally unfit for
society, must be either inferior or superior to man: thus the man in
Homer, who is reviled for being "without society, without law, without
family." Such a one must naturally be of a quarrelsome disposition,
and as solitary as the birds. The gift of speech also evidently proves
that man is a more social animal than the bees, or any of the herding
cattle: for nature, as we say, does nothing in vain, and man is the
only animal who enjoys it. Voice indeed, as being the token of
pleasure and pain, is imparted to others also, and thus much their
nature is capable of, to perceive pleasure and pain, and to impart
these sensations to others; but it is by speech that we are enabled to
express what is useful for us, and what is hurtful, and of course what
is just and what is unjust: for in this particular man differs from
other animals, that he alone has a perception of good and evil, of
just and unjust, and it is a participation of these common sentiments
which forms a family and a city. Besides, the notion of a city
naturally precedes that of a family or an individual, for the whole
must necessarily be prior to the parts, for if you take away the whole
man, you cannot say a foot or a hand remains, unless by equivocation,
as supposing a hand of stone to be made, but that would only be a dead
one; but everything is understood to be this or that by its energic
qualities and powers, so that when these no longer remain, neither can
that be said to be the same, but something of the same name. That a
city then precedes an individual is plain, for if an individual is not
in himself sufficient to compose a perfect government, he is to a city
as other parts are to a whole; but he that is incapable of society, or
so complete in himself as not to want it, makes no part of a city, as
a beast or a god. There is then in all persons a natural impetus to
associate with each other in this manner, and he who first founded
civil society was the cause of the greatest good; for as by the
completion of it man is the most excellent of all living beings, so
without law and justice he would be the worst of all, for nothing is
so difficult to subdue as injustice in arms: but these arms man is
born with, namely, prudence and valour, which he may apply to the most
opposite purposes, for he who abuses them will be the most wicked, the
most cruel, the most lustful, and most gluttonous being imaginable;
for justice is a political virtue, by the rules of it the state is
regulated, and these rules are the criterion of what is right. _

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