Since it is now evident of what parts a city is composed,
it will be necessary to treat first of family government,
for every city is made up of families, and every family
[1253b] has again its separate parts of which it is
composed. When a family is complete, it consists
of freemen and slaves; but as in every subject we
should begin with examining into the smallest parts
of which it consists, and as the first and smallest
parts of a family are the master and slave, the husband
and wife, the father and child, let us first inquire
into these three, what each of them may be, and what
they ought to be; that is to say, the herile, the
nuptial, and the paternal. Let these then be
considered as the three distinct parts of a family:
some think that the providing what is necessary for
the family is something different from the government
of it, others that this is the greatest part of it;
it shall be considered separately; but we will first
speak of a master and a slave, that we may both understand
the nature of those things which are absolutely necessary,
and also try if we can learn anything better on this
subject than what is already known. Some persons
have thought that the power of the master over his
slave originates from his superior knowledge, and
that this knowledge is the same in the master, the
magistrate, and the king, as we have already said;
but others think that herile government is contrary
to nature, and that it is the law which makes one
man a slave and another free, but that in nature there
is no difference; for which reason that power cannot
be founded in justice, but in force.
CHAPTER IV
Since then a subsistence is necessary in every family,
the means of procuring it certainly makes up part
of the management of a family, for without necessaries
it is impossible to live, and to live well. As
in all arts which are brought to perfection it is necessary
that they should have their proper instruments if
they would complete their works, so is it in the art
of managing a family: now of instruments some
of them are alive, others inanimate; thus with respect
to the pilot of the ship, the tiller is without life,
the sailor is alive; for a servant is as an instrument
in many arts. Thus property is as an instrument
to living; an estate is a multitude of instruments;
so a slave is an animated instrument, but every one
that can minister of himself is more valuable than
any other instrument; for if every instrument, at
command, or from a preconception of its master’s
will, could accomplish its work (as the story goes
of the statues of Daedalus; or what the poet tells
us of the tripods of Vulcan, “that they moved
of their own accord into the assembly of the gods “),
the shuttle would then weave, and the lyre play of
itself; nor would the architect want servants, or
the [1254a] master slaves. Now what are generally
Copyrights
Politics: A Treatise on Government from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
