 Book 7, sections 4 through 9, of Politics by Aristotle. Thus far, by way of introduction, in what has preceded, I have discussed other forms of government, in what remains the first point to be considered, is what should be the conditions of the ideal or perfect state, for the perfect state cannot exist without a due supply of the means of life. And therefore we must presuppose many purely imaginary conditions, but nothing is impossible. There will be a certain number of citizens, a country in which to place them, and the like. As the weaver, or shipbuilder, or any other artisan must have the material proper for his work, and in proportion, as this is better prepared, so will the result of his art be nobler, so the statesman or legislature must also have the materials suited to him. First among the materials required by the statesman is population. He will consider what should be the number and character of the citizens, and then what should be the size and character of the country. Most people think that a state, in order to be happy, ought to be large, but even if they are right, they have no idea what is a large and what a small state. For they judge the size of the city by the number of the inhabitants, whereas they ought to regard not their number, but their power. A city too, like an individual, has a work to do, and that city which is best adapted to the fulfillment of its work, is to be deemed greatest. In the same sense of the word, great, in which Hippocrates might be called greater, not as a man, but as a physician, than someone else who was taller. And even if we reckon greatness by numbers, we ought not to include everybody, for there must always be in cities multitude of slaves and sojourners and foreigners, but we should only include those who are members of the state and who form an essential part of it. The number of the latter is a proof of the greatness of the city, but a city which produces numerous artisans and comparatively few soldiers cannot be great. For a great city is not to be confounded with a populist one. Moreover, experience shows that a very populist city can rarely, if ever, be well-governed, since all cities which have a reputation for good government have a limit of population. We may argue on grounds of reason, and the same result will follow. For law is order, and good law is good order, but a very great multitude cannot be orderly. To introduce order into the unlimited is the work of a divine power, of such a power as holds together the universe. Beauty is realized in number and magnitude, and the state which combines magnitude with good order must necessarily be the most beautiful. To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements. For none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature or are spoiled. For example, a ship which is only a span long will not be a ship at all, nor a ship a quarter of a mile long, yet there may be a ship of a certain size, either too large or too small, which will still be a ship, but bad for sailing. In a like manner a state when composed of too few is not, as a state ought to be, self-sufficing. When of too many, though self-sufficing in all mere necessities, as a nation may be, it is not a state, being almost incapable of constitutional government. For who can be the general of such a vast multitude, or who the herald unless he have the voice of a stentor? A state then only begins to exist when it has attained a population sufficient for a good life in the political community. It may indeed, if it somewhat exceeds this number, be a greater state. But as I was saying, there must be a limit. What should be the limit will be easily ascertained by experience. For both governors and governed have duties to perform, the special functions of a governor to command and to judge. But if the citizens of a state are to judge and to distribute offices according to merit, then they must know each other's characters. Where they do not possess this knowledge, both the election to offices and the decision of lawsuits will go wrong. When the population is very large, they are manifestly settled at haphazard, which clearly ought not to be. Besides, in an overpopulous state, foreigners and medics will acquire the rights of citizens, for who will find them out? Clearly, then, the best limit of the population of a state is the largest number which suffices for the purposes of life, and can be taken in at a single view. Enough concerning the size of a state. Five. Much the same principle will apply to the territory of the state. Everyone would agree in praising the territory which is most entirely self-sufficing, and that must be the territory which is all producing, for to have all things and to want nothing is sufficiency. In size and extent it should be such as may enable the inhabitants to live at once temperately and liberally in the enjoyment of leisure. Whether we are wide or wrong in laying down this limit, we will inquire more precisely hereafter. When we have occasion to consider what is the right use of property and wealth, a matter which is much disputed, because men are inclined to rush into one of two extremes, some into meanness, others into luxury. It is not difficult to determine the general character of the territory which is required. There are, however, some points on which military authorities should be heard. It should be difficult of access to the enemy, and easy of egress to the inhabitants. Further, we require that the land as well as the inhabitants of whom we were just now speaking, should be taken in at a single view, for a country which is easily seen can be easily protected. As to the position of the city, if we could have what we wish, it should be well situated in regard both to sea and land. This, then, is one principle, that it should be a convenient center for the protection of the whole country, the other is that it should be suitable for receiving the fruits of the soil, and also for the bringing in of timber and any other products that are easily transported. Six. Whether a communication with the sea is beneficial to a well-ordered state or not is a question which has often been asked. It is argued that the introduction of strangers brought up under other laws, and the increase of population, will be adverse to good order. The increase arises from their using the sea and having a crowd of merchants coming and going, and is inimical to good government. Apart from these considerations, it would be undoubtedly better, both with a view to safety and to the provision of necessaries, that the city and territory should be connected with the sea. The defenders of a country, if they are to maintain themselves against an enemy, should be easily received both by land and by sea. And, even if they are not able to attack by sea and land at once, they will have less difficulty in doing mischief to their assailants on one element, if they themselves can use both. Moreover, it is necessary that they should import from abroad what is not found in their own country, and that they should export what they have in excess, for a city ought to be a market, not indeed for others, but for herself. Those who make themselves a market for their world only do so for the sake of revenue, and if a state ought not to desire profit of this kind, it ought not to have such an emporium. Nowadays, we often see in countries and cities dockyards and harbors very conveniently placed outside the city, but not too far off, and they are kept in dependence by walls and similar fortifications. Cities thus situated manifestly reap the benefit of intercourse with their ports, and any harm which is likely to accrue may be easily guarded against by the laws, which will pronounce and determine who may hold communication with one another, and who may not. There can be no doubt that the possession of a moderate naval force is advantageous to a city. This city should be formidable not only to its own citizens, but to some of its neighbors, or, if necessary, able to assist them by sea as well as by land. The proper number or magnitude of this naval force is relative to the character of the state, for if her function is to take a leading part in politics, her naval power should be commensurate with the scale of her enterprises. The population of the state need not be much increased, since there is no necessity that the sailors should be citizens, the marines who have the control and command will be free men, and belong also to the infantry, and wherever there is a dense population of periochi and husbandmen, there will always be sailors more than enough. Of this we see instances at the present day. The city of Heraclea, for example, although small in comparison with many others, can man a considerable fleet. Such are our conclusions respecting the territory of the state, its harbors, its towns, its relations to the sea, and its maritime power. Having spoken of the number of the citizens, we will proceed to speak of what should be their character. This is a subject which can be easily understood by anyone who casts his eye on the more celebrated states of Helus, and generally on the distribution of races in the habitable world. Those who live in a cold climate and in Europe are full of spirit, but wanting in intelligence and skill, and therefore they retain comparative freedom, but have no political organization, and are incapable of ruling over others. Whereas the natives of Asia are intelligent and inventive, but they are wanting in spirit, and therefore they are always in a state of subjection and slavery. But the Hellenic race, which is situated between them, is likewise intermediate in character, being high spirited and also intelligent. Hence it continues free, and is the best governed of any nation, and, if it could be formed into one state, would be able to rule the world. There are also similar differences in the different tribes of Helus, for some of them are of a one-sided nature and are intelligent or courageous only, while in others there is a happy combination of both qualities. And clearly those on whom the legislature will be most easily led to virtue may be expected to be both intelligent and courageous. Some say that the guardians should be friendly towards those whom they know, fierce towards those whom they do not know. Now passion is the quality of the soul which begets friendship and enables us to love. Notably the spirit within us is more stirred against our friends and acquaintances than against those who are unknown to us, when we think that we are despised by them, for which reason Arkelochus, complaining of his friends, very naturally addresses his soul in these words, for surely thou art plagued on account of friends. The power of command and the love of freedom are in all men based upon this quality, for passion is commanding and invincible. Nor is it right to say that the guardians should be fierce towards those whom they do not know, for we ought not to be out of temper with anyone, and a lofty spirit is not fierce by nature, but only when excited against evildoers. And this, as I was saying before, is a feeling which men show most strongly towards their friends, if they think they have received wrong at their hands. As indeed is reasonable, for besides the actual injury they seem to be deprived of a benefit by those who owe them one, hence the saying, cruel is the strife of brethren, and again, they who love in excess also hate in excess. Thus we have nearly determined the number and character of the citizens of our state, and also the size and nature of their territory. I say nearly, for we ought not to require the same minuteness in theory as in the facts given by perception. 8. As in other natural compounds, the conditions of a composite whole are not necessarily organic parts of it. So in a state or in any other combination forming a unity, not everything is a part, which is a necessary condition. The members of an association have necessarily some one thing the same and common to all, in which they share equally or unequally, for example, food or land or any other thing. But when there are two things of which one is a means and the other an end, they have nothing in common except that the one receives what the other produces. Such, for example, is the relation which workmen and tools stand to their work. The house and the builder have nothing in common, but the art of the builder is for the sake of the house. And so states require property, but property, even though living beings are included in it, is no part of a state. For a state is not a community of living beings only, but a community of equals, aiming at the best life possible. Now, whereas happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it, the various qualities of men are clearly the reason why there are various kinds of states and many forms of government. For different men seek after happiness in different ways, and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government. We must see also how many things are indispensable to the existence of a state, for what we call the parts of a state will be found among the indispensable. Let us enumerate the functions of a state, and we shall easily elicit what we want. First, there must be food, secondly, arts, for life requires many instruments, thirdly, there must be arms, for the members of a community have need of them, and in their own hands, too, in order to maintain authority, both against disobedient subjects and against external excellence. Fourthly, there must be a certain amount of revenue, both for internal needs and for purposes of war. Fifthly, or rather first, there must be a care of religion, which is commonly called worship. Sixthly, and most necessary of all, there must be a power of deciding what is for the public interest, and what is just in men's dealings with one another. These are the services which every state may be said to need. For a state is not a mere aggregate of persons, but a union of them sufficing for the purposes of life, and if any of these things be wanting, it is as we maintain impossible that the community can be absolutely self-sufficing. A state, then, should be framed with a view to the fulfillment of these functions. There must be husband men to procure food, and artisans, and a warlike and a wealthy class, and priests and judges, to decide what is necessary and expedient. Nine. Having determined these points, we have in the next place to consider whether all ought to share in every sort of occupation. Shall every man be at once husband men, artisan, counselor, judge, or shall we suppose the several occupations just mentioned assigned to different persons? Or, thirdly, shall some employments be assigned to individuals and others common to all? The same arrangement, however, does not occur in every constitution. As we were saying, all may be shared by all, or not all by all, but only by some, and hence arise the differences of constitutions, for in democracies all share in all, in oligarchies the opposite practice prevails. Now, since we are here speaking of the best form of government, i.e., that under which the state will be the most happy, and happiness, as has been already said, cannot exist without virtue, it clearly follows that in the state which is best governed and possesses men who are just absolutely and not merely relatively to the principle of the constitution, the citizens must not lead the life of mechanics or tradesmen, for such a life is ignoble. And inimical to virtue. Neither must they be husband men, since leisure is necessary, both for the development of virtue and the performance of political duties. Again, there is in a state a class of warriors and another of counselors who advise about the expedient and determined matters of law, and these seem in a special manner parts of a state. Now, should these two classes be distinguished, or are both functions to be assigned to the same persons? Here again there is no difficulty in seeing that both functions will in one way belong to the same, in another to different persons. To different persons in so far as these, i.e., the physical and the employment are suited to different primes of life, for the one requires mental wisdom and the other strength. But on the other hand, since it is an impossible thing that those who are able to use or to resist force should be willing to remain always in subjection, from this point of view the persons are the same, for those who carry arms can always determine the fate of the constitution. It remains therefore that both functions should be entrusted by the ideal constitution to the same persons, not, however, at the same time, but in the order prescribed by nature, who has given to young men strength and to older men wisdom. Such a distribution of duties would be expedient and also just, and is founded upon a principle of conformity to merit. Besides, the ruling class should not be the owners of property, for they are citizens, and the citizens of a state should be in good circumstances, whereas mechanics or any other class which is not a producer of virtue have no share in the state. This follows from our first principle, for happiness cannot exist without virtue, and a city is not to be termed happy in regard to a portion of the citizens, but in regard to them all. And clearly property should be in their hands, since the husbandman will of necessity be slaves or barbarian, periochi. Of the classes enumerated there remain only the priests, and the manner in which their office is to be regulated is obvious. No husbandman or mechanic should be appointed to it, for the gods should receive honor from the citizens only. Now, since the body of the citizen is divided into two classes, the warriors and the counselors, it is beseeming that the worship of the gods should be duly performed, and also a rest provided in their service for those who from age have given up active life, to the old men of these two classes should be assigned the duties of the priesthood. We have shown what are the necessary conditions and what the parts of a state. Husbandmen, craftsmen, and laborers of all kinds are necessary to the existence of states, but the parts of the state are the warriors and counselors. And these are distinguished severally, one from another, the distinction being in some cases permanent in others not. End of Book 7, Sections 4-9 Book 7, Sections 10-12, of Politics by Aristotle This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Politics by Aristotle. Translated by Benjamin Joett Book 7, Sections 10-12 10. It is not a new or recent discovery of political philosophers that the state ought to be divided into classes, and that the warriors should be separated from the husbandmen. This system has continued in Egypt and Crete to this day, and was established, as tradition says, by a law of Sassastras in Egypt and of Minos in Crete. The institution of common tables also appears to be of ancient date, being in Crete as old as the reign of Minos, and in Italy far older. The Italian historians say that there was a certain Italis, king of Anotria, from whom the Anotrians were called Italians, and who gave the name of Italy to the promontory of Europe lying within the Scyleic and Limenic gulfs, which are distant from one another only half a day's journey. They say that this Italis converted the Anotrians from shepherds into husbandmen, and besides other laws which he gave them was the founder of their common meals. Even in our day some who are derived from him retain this institution and certain other laws of his. On the one side of Italy, towards Terania, dwelt the Opici, who are now, as of old, called Asonais, and on the side towards Eopegia and the Ionian gulf, in the district called Siridis, the Chonis, who are likewise of Anotrian race. From this part of the world originally came the institution of common tables, the separation into case from Egypt, for the reign of Sassastras is a far greater antiquity than that of Minos. It is true indeed that these and many other things have been invented several times over in the course of ages, or rather times without number, for necessity may be supposed to have taught men the inventions which were absolutely required, and when these were provided it was natural that other things which would adorn and enrich life should grow up by degrees, and we may infer that in political institutions the same rule holds. Egypt witnesses to the antiquity of all these things, for the Egyptians appear to be of all people the most ancient, and they have laws and a regular constitution existing from time immemorial. We should, therefore, make the best use of what has already been discovered, and try to supply defects. I have already remarked that the land ought to belong to those who possess arms and have a share in the government, and that the husbandmen ought to be a class distinct from them, and I have determined what should be the extent and nature of the territory. Let me proceed to discuss the distribution of the land and the character of the agricultural class, for I do not think that property ought to be common, as some maintain, but only that by friendly consent there should be a common use of it, and that no citizen should be in want of subsistence. As to common meals there is a general agreement that a well-ordered city should have them, and we will hear after explain what are our own reasons for taking this view. They ought, however, to be open to all the citizens, and yet it is not easy for the poor to contribute the requisite sum out of their private means, and to provide also for their household. The expense of religious worship should likewise be a public charge. The land must, therefore, be divided into two parts, one public and the other private, and each part should be subdivided, part of the public land being appropriated to the service of the gods, and the other part used to defray the cost of the common meals. While of the private land, part should be near the border and the other near the city, so that each citizen's having two lots they may all of them have land in both places. There is justice and fairness in such a division, and it tends to inspire unanimity among the people in their border wars. Where there is not this arrangement some of them are too ready to come to blows with their neighbors, while others are so cautious that they quite lose the sense of honor. Wherefore there is a law in some places which forbids those who dwell near the border to take part in public deliberations about wars with neighbors on the ground that their interests will pervert their judgment. For the reasons already mentioned, then, the land should be divided in the manner described. The very best thing of all would be that the husbandmen should be slaves taken from among men who are not all of the same race and not spirited, for if they have no spirit they will be better suited for their work, and there will be no danger of their making a revolution. The next best thing would be that they should be periochi of foreign race, and of a like inferior nature. Some of them should be the slaves of individuals and employed in the private estates of men of property. The remainder should be the property of the state and employed on the common land. I will hear after explain what is the proper treatment of slaves, and why it is expedient that liberty should be always held out to them as the reward of their services. 11. We have already said that the city should be open to the land and to the sea, and to the whole country as far as possible. In respect of the place itself our wish would be that its situation should be fortunate in four things. The first, health. This is a necessity. Cities which lie towards the east and are blown upon by winds coming from the east are the healthiest. Next in healthfulness are those which are sheltered from the north wind, for they have a milder winter. The side of the city should likewise be convenient both for political administration and for war. With a view to the latter it should afford easy egress to the citizens, and at the same time be inaccessible and difficult of capture to the enemies. There should be a natural abundance of springs and fountains in the town, or if there is a deficiency of them great reservoirs may be established for the collection of rainwater, such as will not fail when the inhabitants are cut off from the country by war. Special care should be taken of the health of the inhabitants, which will depend chiefly on the healthiness of the locality and of the quarter to which they are exposed, and secondly on the use of pure water. This latter point is by no means a secondary consideration. For the elements which we use most, and often as for the support of the body, contribute most to the health, and among these are water and air. Wherefore in all wise states, if there is a want of pure water, and the supply is not all equally good, the drinking water ought to be separated from that which is used for other purposes. As to strongholds, what is suitable to different forms of government varies. Thus an acropolis is suited to an oligarchy or a monarchy, but a plain to democracy, neither to an aristocracy, but rather a number of strong places. The arrangement of private houses is considered to be more agreeable and generally more convenient, if the streets are regularly laid out after the modern fashion, which Hippodamus introduced. But for security and war, the antiquated mode of building, which made it difficult for strangers to get out of a town and for a silence to find their way in, is preferable. A city should, therefore, adopt both plans of building. It is possible to arrange the houses irregularly, as husbandmen plant their vines in what are called clumps. The whole town should not be laid out in straight lines, but only certain quarters and regions. Thus security and beauty will be combined. As to walls, those who say that cities making any pretension to military virtue should not have them are quite out of date in their notions, and they may see the cities which prided themselves on this fancy confuted by facts. True, there is little courage shown in seeking for safety behind a rampart, when an enemy is similar in character and not much superior in number. But the superiority of the besiegers may be, and often is, too much both for ordinary human valor and for that which is found only in a few. And if they are to be saved and to escape defeat and outrage, the strongest wall will be the truest soldierly precaution. More especially now that missiles and siege engines have been brought to such perfection. To have no walls would be as foolish as to choose a site for a town in an exposed country, and to level the heights. Or, as if an individual were to leave his house unwalled, lest the inmates should become cowards. Nor must we forget that those who have their cities surrounded by walls may either take advantage of them or not. But cities which are unwalled have no choice. If our conclusions are just, not only should cities have walls, but care should be taken to make them ornamental as well as useful for war-like purposes, and adapted to resist modern inventions. For, as the assailants of a city do all they can to gain an advantage, so the defenders should make use of any means of defense which have already been discovered, and should devise and invent others, for when men are well-prepared, no enemy even thinks of attacking them. As the walls are to be divided by guardhouses and towers built at suitable intervals, and the body of citizens must be distributed at common tables, the idea will naturally occur that we should establish some of the common tables in the guardhouses. These might be arranged, as has been suggested, while the principal common tables of the magistrates will occupy a suitable place, and there also will be the buildings appropriated to religious worship, except in the case of those rites which the law or the Pythian Oracle has restricted to a special locality. The site should be a spot seen far and wide, which gives due elevation to virtue and towers over the neighborhood. Below this spot should be established an Agora, such as that which the Thessalians call the Freeman's Agora. From all this trade should be excluded, and no mechanic, husband-men, or any such person allowed to enter, unless he be summoned by the magistrates. It would be a charming use of the place if the gymnastic exercises of the elder men were performed there. For in this noble practice different ages should be separated, and some of the magistrates should stay with the boys, while the grown-up men remain with the magistrates, for the presence of the magistrates is the best mode of inspiring true modesty and ingenious fear. There should also be a trader's Agora, distinct and apart from the other, in a situation which is convenient for the reception of goods, both by sea and land. But in speaking of the magistrates, we must not forget another section of the citizens, Viz, the priests, for whom public tables should likewise be provided in their proper place near the temples. The magistrates who deal with contracts, indictments, summonses, and the like, and those who have the care of the Agora and of the city, respectively, ought to be established near an Agora and in some public place of meeting. The neighborhood of the trader's Agora will be a suitable spot. The upper Agora we devote to the life of leisure, the other is intended for the necessities of trade. The same orders should prevail in the country, for there, too, the magistrates, called by some inspectors of forests and by others wardens of the country, must have guardhouses and common tables while they are on duty. Temples should also be scattered throughout the country, dedicated, some to gods and some to heroes. But it would be a waste of time for us to linger over details like these. The difficulty is not in imagining but carrying them out. We may talk about them as much as we like, but the execution of them will depend upon fortune. Wherefore, let us say no more about these matters for the present. 13. Returning to the Constitution itself, let us seek to determine out of what and what sort of elements the State which is to be happy and well-governed should be composed. There are two things in which all well-being consists. One of them is the choice of a right end and aim of action, and the other the discovery of the actions which are meant towards it, for the means and the end may agree or disagree. Sometimes the right end is set before men, but in practice they fail to attain it, and in other cases they are successful in all the means, but they propose to themselves a bad end, and sometimes they fail in both. Take, for example, the art of medicine. Physicians do not always understand the nature of health and also the means which they use may not affect the desired end. In all arts and sciences, both the end and the means should be equally within our control. The happiness and well-being which all men manifestly desire, some have the power of attaining, but to others from some accident or defective nature the attainment of them is not granted. For a good life requires a supply of external goods, in a less degree when men are in a good state, in a greater degree when they are in a lower state. Others again, who possess the conditions of happiness, go utterly wrong from the first in the pursuit of it. But since our object is to discover the best form of government, that, namely, under which a city will be best governed, and since the city is best governed which has the greatest opportunity of obtaining happiness, it is evident that we must clearly ascertain the nature of happiness. We maintain, and have said in the Ethics, if the arguments there adieu star of any value, that happiness is the realization and perfect exercise of virtue, and this is not conditional, but absolute. And I use the term conditional to express that which is indispensable and absolute to express that which is good in itself. Take the case of just actions, just punishments and chastisements do indeed spring from a good principle, but they are good only because we cannot do without them. It would be better that neither individuals nor states should need anything of the sort, but actions which aim at honor and advantage are absolutely the best. The conditional action is the only choice of a lesser evil, whereas these are the foundation and creation of good. A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life, but he can only obtain happiness under the opposite conditions. For this also has been determined in accordance with ethical arguments, that the good man is he for whom, because he is virtuous, the things that are absolutely good are good. And it is also plain that his use of these goods must be virtuous in the absolute sense of good. This makes men fancy that external goods are the cause of happiness, yet we might as well say that a brilliant performance on the liar was to be attributed to the instrument and not to the skill of the performer. It follows then from what has been said that some things the legislature must find ready in his hand in a state, others he must provide. And therefore we can only say, may our state be constituted in such a manner as to be blessed with the goods of which fortune disposes, for we acknowledge her power, whereas virtue and goodness in the state are not a matter of chance but the result of knowledge and purpose. A city can be virtuous only when the citizens who have a share in the government are virtuous, and in our state all the citizens share in the government. Let us then inquire how a man becomes virtuous, for even if we could suppose the citizen body to be virtuous, without each of them being so, yet the latter would be better, for in the virtue of each the virtue of all is involved. There are three things which make men good and virtuous. These are nature, habit, rational principle. In the first place everyone must be born a man and not some other animal, so too he must have a certain character, both of body and soul. But some qualities there is no use in having at birth, for they are altered by habit, and there are some gifts which by nature are made to be turned by habit into good or bad. Animals lead for the most part a life of nature, though in lesser particulars some are influenced by habit as well. Man has rational principle in addition, and man only. Wherefore nature, habit, and rational principle must be in harmony with one another, for they do not always agree. Men do many things against habit and nature, if rational principle persuades them that they ought. We have already determined what natures are likely to be most easily molded by the hands of the legislator. And else is the work of education. We learn some things by habit and some by instruction. Since every political society is composed of rulers and subjects, let us consider whether the relations of one to the other should interchange or be permanent. For the education of the citizens will necessarily vary with the answer given to this question. Now, if some men excelled others in the same degree in which gods and heroes are supposed to excel mankind in general, having in the first place a great advantage even in their bodies and secondly in their minds, so that the superiority of the governors was indisputed and patent to their subjects, it would clearly be better that once for all the one class should rule and the other serve. But since this is unattainable and kings have no marks superiority over their subjects, such as Sillax affirms to be found among the Indians, it is obviously necessary on many grounds that all the citizens alike should take their turn of governing and being governed. Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons, and no government can stand which is not founded upon justice. For if the government must be unjust, every one in the country unites with the governed in the desire to have a revolution, and it is an impossibility that the members of the government can be so numerous as to be stronger than all their enemies put together. Yet that governors should excel their subjects is undeniable. How all this is to be affected and in what way they will respectively share in the government the legislature has to consider. The subject has been already mentioned. Nature herself has provided the distinction when she made a difference between old and young within the same species, of whom she fitted the one to govern and the other to be governed. No one takes offense at being governed when he is young, nor does he think himself better than his governors, especially if he will enjoy the same privilege when he reaches the required age. We conclude that from one point of view governors and governed are identical, and from another different, and therefore their education must be the same and also different. For he who would learn to command well must, as men say, first of all learn to obey. As I observed in the first part of this treatise, there is one rule which is for the sake of the rulers, and another rule which is for the sake of the ruled. The former is a despotic, the latter a free government. Some commands differ not in the thing commanded, but in the intention with which they are imposed. Wherefore many apparently menial offenses are an honor to the free youth by whom they are performed, for actions do not differ as honorable or dishonorable in themselves so much as in the end an intention of them. But since we say that the virtue of the citizen and ruler is the same as that of the good man, and that the same person must first be a subject and then a ruler, the legislator has to see that they became good men, and by what means this may be accomplished, and what is the end of the perfect life. Now the soul of man is divided into two parts, one of which has a rational principle in itself, and the other, not having a rational principle in itself, is able to obey such a principle. And we call a man in any way good because he has the virtues of these two parts. In which of them the end is more likely to be found is no matter of doubt to those who have dopped our division, for in the world both of nature and of art the inferior always exists for the sake of the better or superior, and the better or superior is that which has a rational principle. This principle too, in our ordinary way of speaking, is divided into two kinds, for there is a practical and a speculative principle. This part, then, must evidently be similarly divided, and there must be a corresponding divisions of actions. The actions of the naturally better part are to be preferred by those who have it in their power to attain, to two, out of the three, or to all, for that is always to everyone the most eligible, which is the highest attainable by him. The whole of life is further divided into two parts. Business and leisure, war and peace, and of actions some aim at what is necessary and useful, and some at what is honorable. And the preference given to one or the other class of actions must necessarily be like the preference given to one or the other part of the soul and its actions over the other. There must be war for the sake of peace, business for the sake of leisure, things useful and necessary for the sake of things honorable. All these points the statesman should keep in view when he frames his laws. He should consider the parts of the soul and their functions, and above all the better and the end. He should also remember the diversities of human lives and actions. For men must be able to engage in business and go to war, but leisure and peace are better. They must do what is necessary and indeed what is useful, but what is honorable is better. On such principles children and persons of every age which requires education should be trained. Whereas even the Hellenes of the present day who are reputed to be best governed, and the legislators who gave them their constitutions, do not appear to have framed their governments with regard to the best end, or to have given them laws and education with a view to all the virtues. But in a vulgar spirit have fallen back on those which promise to be more useful and profitable. Many modern writers have taken in a similar view. They commend the Lacodemonian constitution and praise the legislator for making conquest and war his soul aim. A doctrine which may be refuted by argument and has long ago been refuted by facts. For most men desire empire in the hope of accumulating the goods of fortune, and on this ground Thiburne and all those who have written about the Lacodemonian constitution have praised their legislator, because the Lacodemonians, by being trained to meet dangers, gained great power. But surely they are not a happy people now that their empire has passed away, nor was their legislator right. How ridiculous is the result, if when they are continuing in the observance of his laws and no one interferes with them, they have lost the better part of life. These writers further err about the sort of government which the legislator should approve. For the government of free men is nobler and implies more virtue than despotic government. Neither is a city to be deemed happy or a legislator to be praised, because he trains his citizens to conquer and obtain dominion over their neighbors, for there is a great evil in this. On a similar principle any citizen who could should obviously try to obtain the power in his own state. The crime which the Lacodemonians accused King Posanias of attempting, although he had so great honor already. No such principle and no law having this object is either statesmanlike or useful or right. For the same things are best both for individuals and for states, and these are the things which the legislator ought to implant in the minds of his citizens. Neither should men study war with a view to the enslavement of those who did not deserve to be enslaved. But first of all, they should provide against their own enslavement, and in the second place obtain empire for the good of the governed, and not for the sake of exercising a general despotism, and in the third place they should seek to be masters only over those who deserve to be slaves. Facts as well as arguments prove that the legislator should direct all his military and other measures to the provision of leisure and the establishment of peace. For most of these military states are safe only while they are at war, and fall when they have acquired their empire, like unused iron they lose their temper in time of peace. And for this the legislator is to blame, he never having taught them how to lead the life of peace. End of book 7, sections 13 and 14. Book 7, sections 15 through 17 of Politics by Aristotle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Politics by Aristotle. Translated by Benjamin Joett. Book 7, sections 15 through 17. 15. Since the end of individuals and of states is the same, the end of the best man and of the best constitution must also be the same. It is therefore evident that there ought to exist in both of them the virtues of leisure for peace as has often been repeated is the end of war and leisure of toil. But leisure and cultivation may be promoted not only by those virtues which are practiced in leisure but also by some of those which are useful to business. For many necessaries of life have to be supplied before we can have leisure. Therefore a city must be temperate and brave and able to endure for truly as the proverb says there is no leisure for slaves and those who cannot face danger like men are the slaves of any invader. Courage and endurance are required for business and philosophy for leisure temperates and justice for both and more especially in times of peace and leisure for war compels men to be just and temperate whereas the enjoyment of good fortune and the leisure which comes with peace tend to make them insolent. Those then who seem to be the best off and to be in the possession of every good have special need of justice and temperance for example those if such there be as the poets say who dwell in the islands of the blessed they above all will need philosophy and temperance and justice and all the more the more leisure they have living in the midst of abundance. There is no difficulty in seeing why the state that would be happy and good ought to have these virtues. If it be disgraceful in men not to be able to use the goods of life it is peculiarly disgraceful not to be able to use them in time of leisure to show excellent qualities in action and war and when they have peace and leisure to be no better than slaves wherefore we should not practice virtue after the manner of the Lacketimonians for they while agreeing with other men in their conception of the highest goods differ from the rest of mankind in thinking that they are to be obtained by the practice of a single virtue and since they think these goods and the enjoyment of them greater than the enjoyment derived from the virtues and that it should be practiced for its own sake is evident from what has been said we must now consider how and by what means it is to be obtained. We have already determined that nature and habit and rational principle are required and of these the proper nature of the citizens has also been defined by us. But we still have to consider whether the training of early life is to be that of rational principle or habit for these two must accord and when in accord they will then form the best of harmonies. The rational principle may be mistaken and fail in attaining the highest ideal of life and there may be a like evil influence of habit. This much is clear in the first place that as in all other things birth implies an antecedent beginning and that there are beginnings whose end is relative to a further end. Now in men rational principle and mind are the end towards which nature strives so that the birth and moral discipline of the citizens ought to be ordered with a view to them. In the second place as the soul and body are two we see also that there are two parts of the soul and the irrational and two corresponding states reason and appetite and as the body is prior in order of generation to the soul so the irrational is prior to the rational. The proof is that anger and wishing and desire are implanted in children from their very birth but reason and understanding are developed as they grow older. Wherefore the care of the body ought to proceed that of the soul and training of the appetite of part should follow none the less our care of it must be for the sake of the reason and our care of the body for the sake of the soul. 16. Since the legislators should begin by considering how the frames of the children whom he is rearing may be as good as possible his first care will be about marriage at what age should his citizens marry and who are fit to marry? In legislating on this subject he ought to consider the persons and the length of their life their procreative life may terminate at the same period and that they may not differ in their bodily powers as will be the case if the man is still able to beget children while the woman is unable to bear them or the woman able to bear while the man is unable to beget for from these causes arise quarrels and differences between married persons. Secondly he must consider the time at which the children will succeed to their parents there ought not to be too great an interval of age for then the parents will be too old to derive any pleasure from their affection or to be of any use to them. Nor ought they be too nearly of an age too youthful marriages there are many objections the children will be wanting in respect to the parents who will seem to be their contemporaries and disputes will arise in the management of the household. Thirdly, and this is the point from which we digressed the legislator must mold to his will the frames of newly born children almost all these objects may be secured by attention to one point since the time of generation is commonly limited within the age of seventy years in the case of a man and a fifty in the case of a woman the commencement of the union should conform to these periods the union of male and female when too young is bad for the procreation of children in all other animals the offspring of the young are small and undeveloped and with a tendency to produce female children and therefore also in man as proved by the fact that in those cities in which men and women are accustomed to marry young the people are small and weak in childbirth also younger women suffer more and more of them die some persons say that this was the meaning of the response once given to the Trozenans the oracle really meant that many died because they married too young it had nothing to do with the in-gathering of the harvest it also conduces to temperance not to marry too soon for women who marry early are apt to be wanton and in men too the bodily frame is stunted if they marry while the seed is growing for there is a time when the growth of the seed also ceases or continues to but a slight extent women should marry when they are about eighteen years of age and men at seven and thirty then they are in the prime of life and the decline in the powers of both will coincide further the children if their birth takes place too soon as may reasonably be accepted will secede in the beginning of their prime when their fathers are already in the decline of life and have nearly reached their term of three score years and ten thus much of the proper age for marriage the season of the years should also be considered according to our present custom people generally limit marriage to the season of winter and they are right the precepts of physicians and natural philosophers about generation should also be studied by the parents themselves the physicians give good advice about the favorable conditions of the body and the natural philosophers about the winds of which they prefer the north to the south what constitution in the parent is most advantageous to the offspring is a subject which we will consider more carefully when we speak of the education of children and we will only make a few general remarks at present the constitution of an athlete is not suited to the life of a citizen or to health or to the procreation of children any more than the valetudinarian or exhausted constitution but one which is in a mean between them a man's constitution should be enured to labor but not to labor which is excessive or of one sort only such as is practiced by athletes he should be capable of all the actions of a free man these remarks apply equally to both parents women who are with child should be careful of themselves they should take exercise and have a nourishing diet the first of these precautions the legislator will easily carry into effect by requiring that they shall take a walk daily to some temple where they can worship the gods who preside over birth their minds however unlike their bodies they ought to keep quiet for the offspring derive their natures from their mothers as plants do from the earth as to the exposure and rearing of children let there be a law that no deformed child shall live but that on the ground of an excess in the number of children if the established customs of the state forbid this for an hour state population has a limit no child is to be exposed but when couples have children in excess let abortion be procured before sense and life have begun what may or may not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the question of life and sensation and now having determined at what ages men and women are to begin their union let us also determine how long they shall continue to beget and bear offspring for the state men who are too old like men who are too young produce children who are defective in body and mind the children of a very old men are weakly the limit then should be the age which is the prime of their intelligence and this in most persons according to the notion of some poets who measure life by periods of seven years is about fifty at four or five years later they should cease from having families and from that time forward only cohabit with one another for the sake of health or for some similar reason as to adultery let it be held disgraceful in general for any man or woman to be found in any way unfaithful when they are married and called husband and wife if during the time of burying children anything of the sort occur let the guilty person be punished with a loss of privileges in proportion to the offense seventeen after the children have been born the manner of rearing them may be supposed to have a great effect on their bodily strength it would appear from the example of animals and of those nations who desire to create the military habit that the food which has most milk in it is best suited to human beings but the less wine the better if they would escape diseases also all the motions to which children can be subjected at their early age are very useful but in order to preserve their tender limbs from distortion some nations have had recourse to mechanical appliances which straighten their bodies to accustomed children to the cold from their earliest years is also an excellent practice which greatly conduces to health and hardens them for military service since many barbarians have a custom of plunging their children at birth into a cold stream others like the Celts clothe them in a light wrapper only for human nature should be early habituated to endure all which by habit it can be made to endure but the process must be gradual and children from their natural warmth may be easily trained to bear cold such care should attend them in the first stage of life the next period lasts to the age of five but yes no demand should be made upon the child for study or labor lest its growth be impeded and there should be sufficient motion to prevent the limbs from being inactive this can be secured among other ways by amusement but the amusement should not be vulgar or tiring or effeminate the directors of education as they are termed should be careful what tales or stories the children hear for all such thing are designed to prepare the way for the business of latter life this should be for the most part imitations of the occupations which they will hear after pursuit and earnest those are wrong who in their laws attempt to check the loud crying and screaming of children for these contribute towards their growth and in a manner exercise their bodies straining the voice has a strengthening effect similar to that produced by the retention of the breath in violent exertions the directors of education should have an eye to their bringing up and in particular should take care that they are left as little as possible with slaves for until they are seven years old they must live at home and therefore even at this early age it is to be expected that they should acquire a taint of meanness from what they hear and see indeed there is nothing which the legislators should be more careful to drive away than in decency of speech for the light utterance of shameful words leads soon to shameful actions the young especially should never be allowed to repeat or hear anything of the sort a free man who has found saying or doing what is forbidden if he be too young as yet to have the privilege of reclining at the public tables should be disgraced and beaten and an elder person degraded as his slavish conduct deserves and since we do not allow improper language clearly we should also banish pictures or speeches from the stage which are indecent let the rulers take care that there be no image or picture representing unseemly actions except in the temples of those gods at whose festivals the law permits even ribaldry and whom the law also permits to be worshiped by persons of mature age on behalf of themselves their children and their wives but the legislators should not allow youth to be spectators of IMB or of comedy until they are of an age to sit at the public tables and to drink strong wine by that time education will have armed them against the evil influences of such representations we have made these remarks in a cursory manner they are enough for the present occasion but hereafter we will return to the subject and after a fuller discussion determine whether such liberty should or should not be granted and in what way granted if at all Theodorus the tragic actor was quite right in saying that he would not allow any other actor not even if he were quite second rate to enter before himself because the spectators grew fond of the voices which they first heard and the same principle applies universally to association with things as well as with persons for we always like best whatever comes first and therefore youth should be kept strangers to all that is bad and especially to things which suggest vice or hate when the five years have passed away during the two following years they must look upon the pursuits which they are hereafter to learn there are two periods of life with reference to which education has to be divided from seven to the age of puberty and onwards to the age of one and twenty the poets who divide ages by sevens are in the main right but we should observe the divisions actually made by nature for the deficiencies of nature are what art and education seek to fill up let us then first inquire if any regulations are to be laid down about children and secondly whether the care of them should be the concern of the state or private individuals which latter is in our own day the common custom and in the third place what these regulations should be end of book seven sections fifteen through seventeen book number eight sections one through four of politics by Aristotle this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org politics by Aristotle translated by Benjamin Jowett book number eight sections one through four book eight section one no one will doubt that the legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth for the neglect of education does harm to the Constitution the citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives for each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it the character of democracy creates democracy and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy and always the better the character the better the government again for the exercise of any faculty or art a previous training and habituation are required clearly therefore for the practice of virtue and since the whole city has one end it is manifest that education should be one and the same for all and that it should be public and not private not as at present when everyone looks after his own child separately and gives them separate instruction of the sort which he thinks best the training in things which are of common interest should be the same for all neither must we suppose that any one of the citizens belongs to himself all belong to the state and are each of them a part of the state and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole in this particular as in some others the lackademonians are to be praised for they take the greatest pains about their children and make education the business of the state too that education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of the state is not to be denied but what should be the character of this public education and how young persons should be educated are questions which remain to be considered as things are there is a disagreement about the subjects for mankind are by no means agreed about the things to be taught whether we look to virtue or the best life neither is it clear whether education is more concerned with intellectual or with moral virtue the existing practice is perplexing no one knows on what principle we should proceed should the useful in life or should the higher knowledge be the aim of our training all three opinions have been entertained again about the means there is no agreement for different persons starting with different ideas about the nature of virtue naturally disagree about the practice of it there can be no doubt that children should be taught those useful things which are really necessary but not all useful things for occupations are divided into liberal and illiberal and two young children should be imparted only such kinds of knowledge as will be useful to them without vulgarizing them and any occupation art or science which makes the body or soul or mind of the free man less fit for the practice or exercise of virtue is vulgar where for we call those arts vulgar which tend to deform the body and likewise all paid employment for they absorb and degrade the mind there are also some liberal arts quite proper for a free man to acquire but only in a certain degree and if he attend to them too closely in order to attain perfection in them the same evil effects will follow the object also which a man sets before him makes a great difference if he does or learns anything for his own sake or for the sake of his friends or with a view to excellence the action will not appear illiberal but if done for the sake of others the very same action will be thought menial and servile the received subjects of instruction as I have already remarked are partly of a liberal and partly of an illiberal character three the customary branches of education are in number four they are one, reading and writing two, gymnastic exercises three, music to which sometimes is added or drawing of these reading and writing and drawing are regarded as useful for the purposes of life in a variety of ways and gymnastic exercises are thought to infuse courage concerning music a doubt may be raised in our own day most men cultivate it for the sake of pleasure but originally it was included in education because nature herself as has been often said requires that we should be able not only to work well but to use leisure well for as I must repeat once again the first principle of all action is leisure both are required leisure is better than occupation and is its end and therefore the question must be asked what ought we to do when at leisure clearly we ought not to be amusing ourselves for then amusement would be the end of life but if this is inconceivable and amusement is needed more amid serious occupations at other times for he who is hard at work has need of relaxation and amusement gives relaxation whereas occupation is always accompanied with exertion and effort we should introduce amusements only at suitable times and they should be our medicines for the emotion they create in the soul is a relaxation and from the pleasure we obtain rest but leisure of itself gives pleasure and happiness and enjoyment of life which are experienced not by the busy man but by those who have leisure for he who is occupied has in view some end which he has not attained but happiness is an end since all men deem it to be accompanied with pleasure and not with pain this pleasure however is regarded differently by different persons and varies according to the habit of individuals the pleasure of the best man is the best and springs from the noblest sources it is clear then that there are branches of learning and education which we must study merely with a view to leisure spent in intellectual activity and these are not to be valued for their own sake whereas those kinds of knowledge which are useful in business are to be deemed necessary and exist for the sake of other things and therefore our fathers admitted music into education not on the ground either of its necessity or utility for it is not necessary nor indeed useful in the same manner as reading and writing which are useful in money making the management of a household in the acquisition of knowledge and in political life nor like drawing useful for a more correct judgment of the works of artists nor again like gymnastics which gives health and strength for neither of these is to be gained from music there remains then the use of music for intellectual enjoyment in leisure which is in fact evidently the reason of its introduction this being one of the ways in which it is thought that a free man should pass his leisure as Homer says but he who alone should be called to the pleasant feast and afterwards he speaks of others whom he describes as inviting the bard who would delight them all and in another place Odysseus says there is no better way of passing life than when men's hearts are merry and the banqueters in the hall sitting in order hear the voice of the minstrel it is evident then that there is a sort of education in which parents should train their sons not as being useful or necessary but because it is liberal or noble whether it is of one kind only or of more than one and if so what they are and how they are to be imparted must hereafter be determined this much we are now in a position to say that the ancients witnessed to us for their opinion may be gathered from the fact that music is one of the received and traditional branches of education further it is clear that children should be instructed in some useful things for example in reading and writing not only for their usefulness but also because many other sorts of knowledge are acquired through them with a like view they may be taught drawing not to prevent their making mistakes in their own purchases or in order that they may not be imposed upon in the buying or selling of articles but perhaps rather because it makes them judges of the beauty of the human form to be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls now it is clear that in education practice must be used before theory and the body be trained before the mind and therefore boys should be handed over to the trainer who creates in them the proper habit of body and to the wrestling master who teaches them their exercises 4. Of those states which in our own day seem to take the greatest care of children some aim at producing in them an athletic habit but they only injure their forms and stunt their growth although the lack of demonians have not fallen into this mistake yet they brutalize their children by laborious exercises which they think will make them courageous but in truth as we have often repeated education should not be exclusively or principally directed to this end and if we suppose the lack of demonians to be right in their end do not attain it for among barbarians and among animals courage is found associated not with the greatest ferocity but with a gentle and lion like temper there are many races who are ready enough to kill and eat men such as the Achaeans and the Heneoxi who both live about the Black Sea and there are other mainland tribes as bad or worse who all live by plunder but have no courage it is notorious that the lack of demonians themselves while they alone are assiduous in their laborious drill were superior to others but now they are beaten both in war and gymnastic exercises for their ancient superiority did not depend on their motive training their youth but only on the circumstance that they trained them when their only rivals did not hence we may infer that what is noble not what is brutal should have the first place no wolf or wild animal will face a really noble danger such dangers are for the brave man and parents who devote their children to gymnastics while they neglect their necessary education in reality vulgarize them for they make them useful to the art of statesmanship in one quality only and even in this the argument proves them to be inferior to others we should judge the lack of demonians not from what they have been but from what they are for now they have rivals who compete with their education formerly they had none it is an admitted principle that gymnastic exercises should be employed in education and that for children they should be of a lighter kind avoiding severe diet or painful toil lest the growth of the body be impaired the evil of excessive training in early years is strikingly proved by the example of the Olympic victors for not more than two or three of them have gained a prize both as boys and as men their early training and severe gymnastic exercises exhausted their constitutions when boyhood is over three years should be spent in other studies the period of life which follows may then be devoted to hard exercise and strict diet men ought not to labor at the same time their minds and with their bodies for the two kinds of labor are opposed to one another the labor of the body impedes the mind and the labor of the mind the body end of book 8 sections 1 through 4 recording by Robert Scott mojo move 411.com mojo move 411.com August 22nd 2007 book 8 sections 5 through 7 of politics by Aristotle this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org politics by Aristotle translated by Benjamin Joett book 8 sections 5 through 7 section 5 concerning music there are some questions which we have already raised these we may now resume and carry further and our remarks will serve as a prelude to this or any other discussion of the subject it is not easy to determine the nature of music or why anyone should have a knowledge of it shall we say for the sake of amusement and relaxation like sleep or drinking they are not good in themselves but are pleasant and at the same time care to cease as Euripides says and for this end men also appoint music and make use of all three alike sleep, drinking, and music to which some add dancing or shall we argue that music conduces to virtue on the ground that it can form our minds and habituate us to true pleasures as our bodies are made by gymnastics to be of a certain character or shall we say that it contributes to the enjoyment of leisure and mental cultivation which is the third alternative now obviously youths are not to be instructed with a view to their amusement for learning is no amusement but is accompanied with pain neither is intellectual enjoyment suitable to boys of that age for it is the end and that which is imperfect cannot attain the perfect or end but perhaps it may be said that boys learn music for the amusement which they will have when they are grown up if so why should they learn themselves and not like the Persian and Median kings enjoy the pleasure and instruction which is derived from hearing others for surely persons who have made music the business and profession of their lives will be better performers than those who practice only long enough to learn if they must learn music on the same principle they should learn cookery which is absurd and even granting that music may form the character the objection still holds why should we learn ourselves why cannot we attain true pleasure and form a correct judgment from hearing others like the Lachodemonians for they without learning music nevertheless can correctly judge as they say of good and bad melodies or again if music should be used to promote cheerfulness and refined intellectual enjoyment the objection still remains why should we learn ourselves instead of enjoying the performance of others we may illustrate what we are saying by our conception of the gods for in the poet Zeus does not himself sing or play on the leer nay we call professional performers vulgar no freemen would play or sing unless he were intoxicated or ingest but these matters may be left for the present the first question is whether music is or is not to be a part of education of the three things mentioned in our discussion which does it produce education or amusement or intellectual enjoyment for it may be reckoned under all three and seems to share in the nature of all of them amusement is for the sake of relaxation and relaxation is of necessity sweet for it is the remedy of pain caused by toil and intellectual enjoyment is universally acknowledged to contain an element not only of the noble but of the pleasant for happiness is made up of both all men that agree that music is one of the pleasantest things whether with or without songs as museus says sing to mortals of all things the sweetest hence and with good reason it is introduced into social gatherings and entertainments because it makes the hearts of men glad so that on this ground alone we may assume that the young ought to be trained in it for innocent pleasures are not only in harmony with the perfect end of life but they also provide relaxation and whereas men rarely attain the end but often rest by the way and amuse themselves not only with a view to a further end but also for the pleasure's sake it may be well at times to let them find a refreshment in music it sometimes happens that men make amusement the end for the end probably contains some element of pleasure though not any ordinary or lower pleasure but they mistake the lower for the higher and in seeking for the one find the other since every pleasure has a lightness to the end of action for the end is not eligible for the sake of any future good nor do the pleasures which we have described exist for the sake of any future good but of the past that is to say they are the alleviation of past toils and pains and we may infer this to be the reason why men seek happiness from these pleasures but music is pursued not only as an alleviation of past toil but also as providing recreation and who can say whether having this use it may not also have a nobler one in addition to this common pleasure felt and shared by all for the pleasure given by music is natural and therefore adapted to all ages and characters may not it also have some influence over the character and the soul it must have such an influence if characters are affected by it and that they are so affected is proved in many ways and not least by the power which the songs of Olympus exercise for beyond question they inspire enthusiasm and enthusiasm is an emotion of the ethical part of the soul besides when men hear imitations even apart from the rhythms and tunes themselves their feelings move in sympathy since then music is a pleasure and virtue consists in rejoicing and in loving and hating a right there is clearly nothing which we are so much concerned to acquire and to cultivate as the power of forming right judgments and of taking delight in good dispositions and noble actions rhythm and melody supply imitations of anger and gentleness and also of courage and temperance and of all the qualities contrary to these and of the other qualities of character which hardly fall short of the actual affections as we know from our own experience for in listening to such strains our souls under cola change the habit of feeling pleasure or pain at mere representations is not far removed from the same feeling about realities for example if anyone delights in the side of a statue for its beauty only it necessarily follows that the side of the original will be pleasant to him the objects of no other sense such as taste or touch have any resemblance to moral qualities invisible objects there is only a little for there are figures which are of a moral character but only to a slight extent and all do not participate in the feelings about them again figures and colors are not imitations but signs of moral habits indications which the body gives of states of feeling the connection of them with morals is slight but in so far as there is any sense should be taught to look not at the works of Paulson but at those of Paulic notice or any other painter or sculptor who expresses moral ideas on the other hand even in mere melodies there is an imitation of character for the musical modes differ essentially from one another and those who hear them are differently affected by each some of them make men sad and grave like the so-called mixolydian others enfeeble the mind like the relaxed modes another again produces a moderate and settled temper which appears to be the peculiar effect of the Dorian the phyrgian inspires enthusiasm the whole subject has been well treated by philosophical writers on this branch of education and they confirm their arguments by facts the same principles apply to rhythm some have a character of rest others of motion instead of these latter again some have a more vulgar others a nobler movement enough has been said to show that music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young the study is suited to the stage of youth for young persons will not if they can help endure anything which is not sweetened by pleasure and music has a natural sweetness there seems to be in us a sort of affinity to musical modes and rhythms some philosophers say that the soul is a tuning others that it possesses tuning six and now we have to determine the question which has been already raised whether children should be themselves taught to sing and play or not clearly there is a considerable difference made in the character by the actual practice of the art it is difficult if not impossible for those who do not perform to be good judges of the performance of others besides children should have something to do and the rattle of architas which people give to their children in order to amuse them and prevent them from breaking anything in the house was a capital invention for a young thing cannot be quiet the rattle is a toy suited to the infant mind and education is a rattle or toy for children of a larger growth we conclude then that they should be taught music in such a way as to become not only critics but performers the question what is or is not suitable for different ages may be easily answered nor is there any difficulty in meeting the objection of those who say that the study of music is vulgar we reply one in the first place that they who are to be judges must also be performers and that they should begin to practice early although when they are older they may be spared the execution they must have learned to appreciate what is good and to delight in it thanks to the knowledge which they acquired in their youth as to two the vulgarizing effect which music is supposed to exercise this is a question which we shall have no difficulty in determining when we have considered to what extent free men who are being trained to political virtue should pursue the art what melodies and what rhythms they should be allowed to use and what instruments should be employed in teaching them to play for even the instrument makes a difference the answer to the objection turns upon these distinctions for it is quite possible that certain methods of teaching and learning music do really have a degrading effect it is evident then that the learning of music ought not to impede the business of ripe or years or to degrade the body or render it unfit for civil or military training whether for bodily exercises at the time or for later studies the right measure will be attained if students of music stop short of the arts which are practiced in professional contests and do not seek to acquire those fantastic marvels of execution which are now the fashion in such contests and from these have passed into education let the young practice even such music as we have prescribed only until they are able to feel delight in noble melodies and rhythms and not merely in that common part of music in which every slave or child and even some animals find pleasure from these principles we may also infer what instruments should be used the flute or any other instrument which requires great skill as for example the heart ought not to be admitted into education but only such as will make intelligent students of music or of the other parts of education besides the flute is not an instrument which is expressive of moral character it is too exciting the proper time for using it is when the performance aims not at instruction but at the relief of passions and there is a further objection the impediment which the flute presents to the use of the voice detracts from its educational value the ancients therefore were right in forbidding the flute to youths and freemen although they had once allowed it for when their wealth gave them a greater inclination to leisure and they had loftier notions of excellence being also elated with their success both before and after the persian war with more zeal than discernment they pursued every kind of knowledge and so they introduced the flute into education at lackadamon there was a coragus who led the chorus with a flute and at Athens the instrument became so popular that most freemen could play upon it the popularity is shown by the tablet which thrasipus dedicated when he furnished the chorus to ecfantities later experience enabled men to judge what was or was not really conducive to virtue and they rejected both the flute and several other old-fashioned instruments such as the lydian harp the many-stringed lyre the heptagon triangle sambuca the like which are intended only to give pleasure to the hearer and require extraordinary skill of hand there is a meaning also in the myths of the ancients which tells how athene invented the flute and then threw it away it was not a bad idea of theirs that the goddess disliked the instrument because it made the face ugly but with still more reason may we say that she rejected it because the acquirement of flute playing contributes nothing to the mind since to athene we ascribe both knowledge and art thus then we reject the professional instruments and also the professional mode of education in music and by professional we mean that which is adopted in contests for in this the performer practices the art not for the sake of his own improvement but in order to give pleasure and that of a vulgar sort to his hearers for this reason the execution of such music is not the part of a freeman but of a paid performer and the result is that the performers all vulgarized for the end at which they aim is bad the vulgarity of the spectator tends to lower the character of the music and therefore of the performers they look to him he makes them what they are and fashions even their bodies by the movements which he expects them to exhibit seven we have also to consider rhythms and modes and their use in education shall we use them all or make a distinction and shall the same distinction be made for those who practice music with a view to education or shall it be some other now we see that music is produced by melody and rhythm and we ought to know what influence these have respectively on education and whether we should prefer excellence in melody or excellence in rhythm but as the subject has been very well treated by many musicians of the present day and also by philosophers who have had considerable experience of musical education to these we would refer the more exact student of the subject we shall only speak of it now after the manner of the legislator stating the general principles we accept the division of melodies proposed by certain philosophers into ethical melodies melodies of action and passionate or inspiring melodies each having as they say a mode corresponding to it but we maintain further that music should be studied not for the sake of one but of many benefits that is to say with a view to one education to purgation the word purgation we use it present without explanation but when hereafter we speak of poetry we will treat the subject with more precision music may also serve three for enjoyment for relaxation and for recreation after exertion it is clear therefore that all the modes must be employed by us but not all of them in the same manner in education the most ethical modes are to be preferred but in listening to the performances of others we may admit the modes of action and passion also for feelings such as pity and fear or again enthusiasm exist very strongly in some souls and have more or less influence over all some persons fall into a religious frenzy whom we see as a result of the sacred melodies when they have used the melodies that excite the soul to mystic frenzy restored as though they had found healing and purgation those who are influenced by pity or fear and every emotional nature must have a like experience and others insofar as each is susceptible to such emotions and all are in a manner purged and their souls lightened and delighted the purgative melodies likewise give an innocent pleasure to mankind such are the modes and the melodies in which those who perform music at the theater should be invited to compete but since the spectators are of two kinds the one free and educated and the other a vulgar crowd composed of mechanics laborers and the like there ought to be contests and exhibitions instituted for the relaxation of the second class also and the music will correspond to their minds for as their minds are perverted from the natural state so there are perverted modes and highly strung and unnaturally colored melodies a man recieves pleasure from what is natural to him and therefore professional musicians may be allowed to practice this lower sort of music before an audience of a lower type but for the purposes of education as I have already said those modes and melodies should be employed which are ethical such as the Dorian as we said before though we may include any others which are approved by philosophers who have a musical education the Socrates of the Republic is wrong in retaining only the Phyrgian mode along with the Dorian the more so because he rejects the flute for the Phyrgian is to the modes with the flute is to musical instruments both of them are exciting and emotional poetry proves this for Bacchic frenzy and all similar emotions are most suitably expressed by the flute and are better set to the Phyrgian than to any other mode the Dithram for example is acknowledged to be Phyrgian a fact of which the connoisseurs of music offer many proofs saying among other things that Philoxonies having attempted to compose his Missions as a Dithram in the Dorian mode found it impossible and fell back by the very nature of things into the more appropriate Phyrgian all men agree that the Dorian music is the gravest and manliest and whereas we say that the extreme should be avoided and the mean followed and whereas the Dorian is a mean between the other modes it is evident that our youth should be taught the Dorian music two principles have to be kept in view what is possible what is becoming at these every man ought to aim but even these are relative to age the old who have lost their powers cannot very well sing the high strung modes the nature herself seems to suggest that their song should be of the more relaxed kind wherefor the musicians likewise blame Socrates and with justice for rejecting the relaxed modes in education under the idea that they are intoxicating not in the ordinary sense of intoxication for wine rather tends to excite men but because they have no strength in them and so with a view also to the time of life when men begin to grow old they ought to practice the gentler modes and melodies as well as the others and further any mode such as the Lydian above all others appears to be which is suited to children of tender age and possesses the elements both of order and education thus it is clear that education should be based upon three principles the mean the possible the becoming these three end of book eight sections five through seven recording by Cibela Denton Carolton Georgia end of politics by Aristotle translated by Benjamin Joe it