BOOK VII - CHAPTER XIV

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_ As every political community consists of those who govern and of those
who are governed, let us consider whether during the continuance of
their lives they ought to be the same persons or different; for it is
evident that the mode of education should be adapted to this
distinction. Now, if one man differed from another as much, as we
believe, the gods and heroes differ from men: in the first place,
being far their superiors in body; and, secondly, in the soul: so that
the superiority of the governors over the governed might be evident
beyond a doubt, it is certain that it would be better for the one
always to govern, the other always to be governed: but, as this is not
easy to obtain, and kings are not so superior to those they govern as
Scylax informs us they are in India, it is evident that for many
reasons it is necessary that all in their turns should both govern and
be governed: for it is just that those who are equal should have
everything alike; and it is difficult for a state to continue which is
founded in injustice; for all those in the country who are desirous of
innovation will apply themselves to those who are under the government
of the rest, and such will be their numbers in the state, that it will
be impossible for the magistrates to get the better of them. But that
the governors ought to excel the governed is beyond a doubt; the
legislator therefore ought to consider how this shall be, and how it
may be contrived that all shall have their equal share in the
administration. Now, with respect to this it will be first said, that
nature herself has directed us in our choice, laying down the selfsame
thing when she has made some young, others old: the first of whom it
becomes to obey, the latter to command; for no one when he is young is
offended at his being under government, or thinks himself too good for
it; more especially when he considers that he himself shall receive
the same honours which he pays when he shall arrive at a proper age.
In some respects it must be acknowledged that the governors and the
governed are the same, in others they are different; it is therefore
necessary that their education should be in [1333a] some respect the
same, in others different: as they say, that he will be a good
governor who has first learnt to obey. Now of governments, as we have
already said, some are instituted for the sake of him who commands;
others for him who obeys: of the first sort is that of the master over
the servant; of the latter, that of freemen over each other. Now some
things which are commanded differ from others; not in the business,
but in the end proposed thereby: for which reason many works, even of
a servile nature, are not disgraceful for young freemen to perform;
for many things which are ordered to be done are not honourable or
dishonourable so much in their own nature as in the end which is
proposed, and the reason for which they are undertaken. Since then we
have determined, that the virtue of a good citizen and good governor
is the same as of a good man; and that every one before he commands
should have first obeyed, it is the business of the legislator to
consider how his citizens may be good men, what education is necessary
to that purpose, and what is the final object of a good life. The soul
of man may be divided into two parts; that which has reason in itself,
and that which hath not, but is capable of obeying its dictates: and
according to the virtues of these two parts a man is said to be good:
but of those virtues which are the ends, it will not be difficult for
those to determine who adopt the division I have already given; for
the inferior is always for the sake of the superior; and this is
equally evident both in the works of art as well as in those of
nature; but that is superior which has reason. Reason itself also is
divided into two parts, in the manner we usually divide it; the
theoretic and the practical; which division therefore seems necessary
for this part also: the same analogy holds good with respect to
actions; of which those which are of a superior nature ought always to
be chosen by those who have it in their power; for that is always most
eligible to every one which will procure the best ends. Now life is
divided into labour and rest, war and peace; and of what we do the
objects are partly necessary and useful, partly noble: and we should
give the same preference to these that we do to the different parts of
the soul and its actions, as war to procure peace; labour, rest; and
the useful, the noble. The politician, therefore, who composes a body
of laws ought to extend his views to everything; the different parts
of the soul and their actions; more particularly to those things which
are of a superior nature and ends; and, in the same manner, to the
lives of men and their different actions.

They ought to be fitted both for labour and war, but rather [1333b]
for rest and peace; and also to do what is necessary and useful, but
rather what is fair and noble. It is to those objects that the
education of the children ought to tend, and of all the youths who
want instruction. All the Grecian states which now seem best governed,
and the legislators who founded those states, appear not to have
framed their polity with a view to the best end, or to every virtue,
in their laws and education; but eagerly to have attended to what is
useful and productive of gain: and nearly of the same opinion with
these are some persons who have written lately, who, by praising the
Lacedaemonian state, show they approve of the intention of the
legislator in making war and victory the end of his government. But
how contrary to reason this is, is easily proved by argument, and has
already been proved by facts (but as the generality of men desire to
have an extensive command, that they may have everything desirable in
the greater abundance; so Thibron and others who have written on that
state seem to approve of their legislator for having procured them an
extensive command by continually enuring them to all sorts of dangers
and hardships): for it is evident, since the Lacedemonians have now no
hope that the supreme power will be in their own hand, that neither
are they happy nor was their legislator wise. This also is ridiculous,
that while they preserved an obedience to their laws, and no one
opposed their being governed by them, they lost the means of being
honourable: but these people understand not rightly what sort of
government it is which ought to reflect honour on the legislator; for
a government of freemen is nobler than despotic power, and more
consonant to virtue. Moreover, neither should a city be thought happy,
nor should a legislator be commended, because he has so trained the
people as to conquer their neighbours; for in this there is a great
inconvenience: since it is evident that upon this principle every
citizen who can will endeavour to procure the supreme power in his own
city; which crime the Lacedaemonians accuse Pausanias of, though he
enjoyed such great honours.

Such reasoning and such laws are neither political, useful nor true:
but a legislator ought to instil those laws on the minds of men which
are most useful for them, both in their public and private capacities.
The rendering a people fit for war, that they may enslave their
inferiors ought not to be the care of the legislator; but that they
may not themselves be reduced to slavery by others. In [1334a] the
next place, he should take care that the object of his government is
the safety of those who are under it, and not a despotism over all: in
the third place, that those only are slaves who are fit to be only so.
Reason indeed concurs with experience in showing that all the
attention which the legislator pays to the business of war, and all
other rules which he lays down, should have for their object rest and
peace; since most of those states (which we usually see) are preserved
by war; but, after they have acquired a supreme power over those
around them, are ruined; for during peace, like a sword, they lose
their brightness: the fault of which lies in the legislator, who never
taught them how to be at rest. _

Read next: BOOK VII: CHAPTER XV

Read previous: BOOK VII: CHAPTER XIII

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