These things being determined, in the next place it must be considered, whether one polity is to be admitted, or more than one; and if more than one, how many and of what kind, and what the differences of them are. But a polity is the order of the city, both with respect to other offices, and especially with reference to that which has the supreme authority. For everywhere the administration of the city has the principal authority. But the polity is the administration. I say, for instance, in democracies the people have the principal authority; but in oligarchies, on the contrary, this power is in the hands of a few. We say, however, that the polity of these two is different; and we assert the same thing of other polities. In the first place, however, it must be hypothetically determined for whose sake a city is established, and how many species of government there are with respect to man and the communion of life. This, indeed, we have already mentioned in what we have said concerning economy, and the authority of a master, in which we have shown that man is naturally a political animal; on which account, even when he does not want any assistance from others, he will no less be desirous of society. Nevertheless, common utility leads them to this, so far as it enables each individual to live well. This, therefore, is especially the end both in common to all men, and to every one in particular. Men, also, assemble together merely for the sake of living; for perhaps there is in this some portion of the beautiful in conduct. They likewise maintain political society for the sake of living only, unless they are very much involved in the calamities of life. But it is evident that many men will endure great calamity, through the desire of life, as containing in it something naturally alluring and sweet. Moreover, it is easy to distinguish the above-mentioned modes of government; for we have frequently discussed them in our exoteric discourses. For the authority of a master, though it is in reality advantageous both to him who is by nature a slave, and to him who is by nature a master, yet at the same time it no less principally tends to the advantage of the master, but accidentally to that of the slave. For it is not possible if the slave is destroyed, that the power of the master can be preserved. But the government of children, of a wife, and the whole of a family, which we call economical, is either for the sake of those that are governed, or for the sake of something common to both. And essentially, indeed, it is for the sake of the governed, as we see in other arts, such as the medicinal and gymnastic; but accidentally it may be for the sake of those who govern. For nothing hinders but that the master of the exercises may sometimes be one of those who are exercised, just as the pilot is always one of the sailors. The master of the exercises, therefore, and the pilot, consider the good of those who are under their government. But when either of these becomes one of the governed, he accidentally participates of utility; the pilot, indeed, from being a sailor, and the master of the exercises from being exercised. Hence, also, political governments, when they are established according to an equality of the citizens, and according to similitude, think it right that the governors and the governed should rule alternately. Formerly, indeed, as was natural, every one expected that each of his fellow citizens should, in his turn, serve the public, and again direct his attention to a certain good of his own, as he himself when in office had done for others. But now every one is desirous of being continually in power, through the advantages derived from public employments, and from being in office; as if it always happened that those who were diseased before were restored to health by becoming magistrates. For if this were the case, they would eagerly seek after places of authority. It is evident, therefore, that those polities are rightly established according to the simply just, which consider what is advantageous in common; but that all such as alone consider the good of the rulers, are erroneous, and deviations from right polities. For they are despotic. But a city is a community of free men.
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