[1160a] Now brothers and intimate companions have
all in common, but other people have their property
separate, and some have more in common and others
less, because the Friendships likewise differ in degree.
So too do the various principles of Justice involved,
not being the same between parents and children as
between brothers, nor between companions as between
fellow-citizens merely, and so on of all the other
conceivable Friendships. Different also are the
principles of Injustice as regards these different
grades, and the acts become intensified by being done
to friends; for instance, it is worse to rob your companion
than one who is merely a fellow-citizen; to refuse
help to a brother than to a stranger; and to strike
your father than any one else. So then the Justice
naturally increases with the degree of Friendship,
as being between the same parties and of equal extent.
All cases of Communion are parts, so to say, of the
great Social one, since in them men associate with
a view to some advantage and to procure some of those
things which are needful for life; and the great Social
Communion is thought originally to have been associated
and to continue for the sake of some advantage:
this being the point at which legislators aim, affirming
that to be just which is generally expedient.
All the other cases of Communion aim at advantage in
particular points; the crew of a vessel at that which
is to result from the voyage which is undertaken with
a view to making money, or some such object; comrades
in war at that which is to result from the war, grasping
either at wealth or victory, or it may be a political
position; and those of the same tribe, or Demus, in
like manner.
Some of them are thought to be formed for pleasure’s
sake, those, for instance, of bacchanals or club-fellows,
which are with a view to Sacrifice or merely company.
But all these seem to be ranged under the great Social
one, inasmuch as the aim of this is, not merely the
expediency of the moment but, for life and at all times;
with a view to which the members of it institute sacrifices
and their attendant assemblies, to render honour to
the gods and procure for themselves respite from toil
combined with pleasure. For it appears that sacrifices
and religious assemblies in old times were made as
a kind of first-fruits after the ingathering of the
crops, because at such seasons they had most leisure.
So then it appears that all the instances of Communion
are parts of the great Social one: and corresponding
Friendships will follow upon such Communions.
X
Of Political Constitutions there are three kinds;
and equal in number are the deflections from them,
being, so to say, corruptions of them.
The former are Kingship, Aristocracy, and that which
recognises the principle of wealth, which it seems
appropriate to call Timocracy (I give to it the name
of a political constitution because people commonly
do so). Of these the best is Monarchy, and Timocracy
the worst.
