Politics

​if indeed the most choiceworthy of existing things will belong to those who deprive and use force; but perhaps it is impossible for this to belong to them, and they assume this falsely. For it is no longer possible for actions to be noble for one who does not differ as much as a husband from a wife, or a father from children, or a master from slaves; so that the transgressor could never later achieve anything so great as the amount of virtue he has already transgressed. For among equals, the noble and the just consist in taking turns, for this is equal and alike; but what is unequal for equals and unlike for those who are alike is contrary to nature, and nothing of what is contrary to nature is noble. Therefore, if there should be someone else who is superior in virtue and in the power that practices the best things, it is noble to follow him and just to obey him. But there must be present not only virtue but also power, according to which he will be active. But if these things are said well and we must set down happiness as doing well, then both in common for every city and for each individual, the active life would be best. But the active life is not necessarily in relation to others, as some think, nor are those thoughts alone active which come about from acting for the sake of the results, but much more so those contemplations and thoughts that are complete in themselves and for their own sake; for doing well is an end, so that it is also a kind of action. And we speak of acting in the most sovereign sense, even in the case of external actions, of those who are master-builders by their thoughts. Yet indeed, neither is it necessary for cities that are situated by themselves and have chosen to live thus to be inactive; for it is possible for this to happen by parts; for there are many communities among the parts of the city with one another. And this belongs similarly also to any single human being; for hardly would God and the whole cosmos be in a noble state, for whom there are no external actions besides their own proper ones. That the same life, then, is necessarily best for each of human beings and in common for cities and for human beings, is clear. Since indeed what has now been said about these things has been prefaced, and other constitutions have been contemplated by us before, it is the beginning of what remains to say first what kind of hypotheses there must be concerning the city that is about to be established according to prayer. For it is not possible for the best constitution to come into being without appropriate equipment. Therefore we must assume many things beforehand as though praying, though none of these must be impossible; I mean, for instance, concerning the number of citizens and territory. For just as for other craftsmen, for instance a weaver and a shipwright,