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A Crichton (Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library),
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Aristotle, etc., 1871; G. Grote, Aristotle, edited
by A. Bain and G. C. Robertson, 1872, 1880; E. Wallace,
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A TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT
BOOK I
CHAPTER I
As we see that every city is a society, and every
society Ed. is established for some good purpose;
for an apparent [Bekker 1252a] good is the spring
of all human actions; it is evident that this is the
principle upon which they are every one founded, and
this is more especially true of that which has for
its object the best possible, and is itself the most
excellent, and comprehends all the rest. Now
this is called a city, and the society thereof a political
society; for those who think that the principles of
a political, a regal, a family, and a herile government
are the same are mistaken, while they suppose that
each of these differ in the numbers to whom their power
extends, but not in their constitution: so that
with them a herile government is one composed of a
very few, a domestic of more, a civil and a regal
of still more, as if there was no difference between
a large family and a small city, or that a regal government
and a political one are the same, only that in the
one a single person is continually at the head of
public affairs; in the other, that each member of
the state has in his turn a share in the government,
and is at one time a magistrate, at another a private
person, according to the rules of political science.
But now this is not true, as will be evident to any
one who will consider this question in the most approved
method. As, in an inquiry into every other subject,
it is necessary to separate the different parts of
which it is compounded, till we arrive at their first
elements, which are the most minute parts thereof;
so by the same proceeding we shall acquire a knowledge
of the primary parts of a city and see wherein they
differ from each other, and whether the rules of art
will give us any assistance in examining into each
of these things which are mentioned.
CHAPTER II
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
Copyrights
Politics: A Treatise on Government from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
