Let us, however, universally direct our attention to property and the acquisition of money, according to the method we have adopted; since a slave is a certain part of property. In the first place, therefore, it may be doubted whether the art of acquiring money is the same as the economic art, or is a certain part of it, or subservient to it. And if it is subservient to it, whether it is in such a way as the art of making shuttles is to the art of weaving, or as the brazier’s art to the art of making a statue. For these arts are not similarly ministrant; but the one supplies the instruments, the other the matter. I mean however by the matter, the subject from which a certain work is finished, as wool for the weaver, and brass for the statuary. It is evident, therefore, that the economic art is not the same as the art of acquiring money. For the employment of the one, indeed, is to furnish the means, but of the other to use them. For what is it which uses things pertaining to a family except the economic art? But whether this is a certain part of it, or is of a different species, is dubious. For if it is the business of him who is to gain money to consider whence riches and possessions may be procured; but both possessions and wealth comprehend many parts; it is requisite first to enquire whether the art of husbandry is a certain part of the art of acquiring money, or is of a different genus, and universally, whether this is not the case with respect to the attention to, and acquisition of food. There are, however, many species of nutriment; on which account, also, there are many modes of living both of animals and men; for it is not possible to live without nutriment. Hence the diversities of nutriment produce the differences in the lives of animals. For of brutes, some indeed are gregarious, but others live dispersed, as is most convenient for procuring themselves food; because some of them are carnivorous, others live on fruits, and others of them are omnivorous. Hence nature has distinguished their lives with a view to the facility of obtaining and the choice of nutriment. Since, however, the same thing is not naturally delectable to every animal, but different things are pleasing to different animals, hence the lives of those that are carnivorous and of those that feed on fruits differ from each other; and in a similar manner with respect to men. For the lives of these differ in many respects. The most indolent men therefore are shepherds; for the nutriment which is derived from tame animals, is produced without labour by those who lead an indolent life. And since it is necessary that the animals under their care should change their habitations on account of pastures, the shepherds also are compelled to follow them, thus cultivating as it were a living farm. But others live a predatory life; some indeed by robbing other men; those who live near lakes, and marshes, and rivers, or the sea, by fishing; and others by fowling, or by hunting wild beasts. The greater part of mankind, however, live on the productions of the earth, and on cultivated fruits. So many in number, therefore, are the lives nearly of those whose employment is naturally derived from themselves, and who do not procure their nutriment either by exchange or merchandize; and such are shepherds, husbandmen, robbers, fishermen, and hunters. But others mingling different employments together, live pleasantly from these, supplying those deficiencies which were wanting to render their life sufficient to itself. Thus some unite the employment of the shepherd and the robber, but others that of the husbandman and the hunter. And in a similar manner, the rest also live after that manner which necessity compels them to adopt. An acquisition, therefore, of this kind, appears to have been given to all animals by nature herself, as well immediately after their birth, as when they have attained their proper perfection. For some animals as soon as they are born, are provided with as much nutriment as is sufficient for them, till that which is born is able to procure food for itself, as is the case with vermiparous and oviparous animals; but such as are viviparous, contain in themselves food for their offspring for a certain time, viz. the nature of what is called milk. Hence it is evident that we must form a similar opinion of generated natures, and admit that plants exist for the sake of animals, and other animals for the sake of man. And tame animals, indeed, were generated for the purposes of utility and nutriment; but of wild animals, if not all, yet the greater part subsist for the sake of affording us nutriment and some other aid, in order that clothing, and some other auxiliaries, may be derived from them. If, therefore, nature neither produces any thing in vain, nor any thing imperfect, it necessarily follows that she has made all these things for the sake of man. Hence, also, the art of war will in a certain respect be the art of acquiring. For the art of hunting is a part of it, which it is necessary to employ against wild beasts, and against such men as are naturally adapted to be governed, but are unwilling to be so; and consequently this war is naturally just. One species, therefore, of acquisition which is according to nature, is a part of economy; which ought either to be at hand, or means should be employed that it may be so, which consist in collecting things necessary for the purposes of life, and which are useful to the communion of a city or a family. And true wealth seems to consist of these things. For a sufficiency of possession of this kind, for the purposes of a happy life, is not infinite, as Solon says it is when he sings,
“No boundary of wealth for man is fixt.”
For it is fixt in the same manner as in other arts. For no instrument of any art is infinite, either in multitude or magnitude. But wealth is a multitude of economical and political instruments. It is evident, therefore, that there is a certain art of acquiring things according to nature both in domestic and political concerns, and the cause likewise of this is manifest.
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