BOOK VII - CHAPTER II

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_ It now remains for us to say whether the happiness of any individual
man and the city is the same or different: but this also is evident;
for whosoever supposes that riches will make a person happy, must
place the happiness of the city in riches if it possesses them; those
who prefer a life which enjoys a tyrannic power over others will also
think, that the city which has many others under its command is most
happy: thus also if any one approves a man for his virtue, he will
think the most worthy city the happiest: but here there are two
particulars which require consideration, one of which is, whether it
is the most eligible life to be a member of the community and enjoy
the rights of a citizen, or whether to live as a stranger, without
interfering in public affairs; and also what form of government is to
be preferred, and what disposition of the state is best; whether the
whole community should be eligible to a share in the administration,
or only the greater part, and some only: as this, therefore, is a
subject of political examination and speculation, and not what
concerns the individual, and the first of these is what we are at
present engaged in, the one of these I am not obliged to speak to, the
other is the proper business of my present design. It is evident that
government must be the best which is so established, that every one
therein may have it in his power to act virtuously and live happily:
but some, who admit that a life o! virtue is most eligible, still
doubt which is preferable a public life of active virtue, or one
entirely disengaged from what is without and spent in contemplation;
which some say is the only one worthy of a philosopher; and one of
these two different modes of life both now and formerly seem to have
been chosen by all those who were the most virtuous men; I mean the
public or philosophic. And yet it is of no little consequence on which
side the truth lies; for a man of sense must naturally incline to the
better choice; both as an individual and a citizen. Some think that a
tyrannic government over those near us is the greatest injustice; but
that a political one is not unjust: but that still is a restraint on
the pleasures and tranquillity of life. Others hold the quite
contrary opinion, and think that a public and active life is the only
life for man: for that private persons have no opportunity of
practising any one virtue, more than they have who are engaged in
public life the management of the [1324b] state. These are their
sentiments; others say, that a tyrannical and despotical mode of
government is the only happy one; for even amongst some free states
the object of their laws seems to be to tyrannise over their
neighbours: so that the generality of political institutions,
wheresoever dispersed, if they have any one common object in view,
have all of them this, to conquer and govern. It is evident, both from
the laws of the Lacedaemonians and Cretans, as well as by the manner
in which they educated their children, that all which they had in view
was to make them soldiers: besides, among all nations, those who have
power enough and reduce others to servitude are honoured on that
account; as were the Scythians, Persians, Thracians, and Gauls: with
some there are laws to heighten the virtue of courage; thus they tell
us that at Carthage they allowed every person to wear as many rings
for distinction as he had served campaigns. There was also a law in
Macedonia, that a man who had not himself killed an enemy should be
obliged to wear a halter; among the Scythians, at a festival, none
were permitted to drink out of the cup was carried about who had not
done the same thing. Among the Iberians, a warlike nation, they fixed
as many columns upon a man's tomb as he had slain enemies: and among
different nations different things of this sort prevail, some of them
established by law, others by custom. Probably it may seem too absurd
to those who are willing to take this subject into their consideration
to inquire whether it is the business of a legislator to be able to
point out by what means a state may govern and tyrannise over its
neighbours, whether they will, or will not: for how can that belong
either to the politician or legislator which is unlawful? for that
cannot be lawful which is done not only justly, but unjustly also: for
a conquest may be unjustly made. But we see nothing of this in the
arts: for it is the business neither of the physician nor the pilot to
use either persuasion or force, the one to his patients, the other to
his passengers: and yet many seem to think a despotic government is a
political one, and what they would not allow to be just or proper, if
exercised over themselves, they will not blush to exercise over
others; for they endeavour to be wisely governed themselves, but think
it of no consequence whether others are so or not: but a despotic
power is absurd, except only where nature has framed the one party for
dominion, the other for subordination; and therefore no one ought to
assume it over all in general, but those only which are the proper
objects thereof: thus no one should hunt men either for food or
sacrifice, but what is fit for those purposes, and these are wild
animals which are eatable.

Now a city which is well governed might be very [1325a] happy in
itself while it enjoyed a good system of laws, although it should
happen to be so situated as to have no connection with any other
state, though its constitution should not be framed for war or
conquest; for it would then have no occasion for these. It is evident
therefore that the business of war is to be considered as commendable,
not as a final end, but as the means of procuring it. It is the duty
of a good legislator to examine carefully into his state; and the
nature of the people, and how they may partake of every intercourse,
of a good life, and of the happiness which results from it: and in
this respect some laws and customs differ from others. It is also the
duty of a legislator, if he has any neighbouring states to consider in
what manner he shall oppose each of them' or what good offices he
shall show them. But what should be the final end of the best
governments will be considered hereafter. _

Read next: BOOK VII: CHAPTER III

Read previous: BOOK VII: CHAPTER I

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