We now proceed to inquire what polity is the best, and what life is the most excellent for most cities, and most men; being a life which neither through a transcendency in virtue is above the reach of the vulgar; or which requires an education that nature and fortune alone can furnish, or a polity conformable to the general wish; but a life which most men are capable of partaking, and a polity which most cities may establish. For with respect to what are called aristocracies, of which we have just spoken, some of them are foreign to the nature of most cities, but others are nearly allied to a polity properly so called. Hence, we shall speak of both as if they were one. The judgment, however, respecting all these, is from the same elements. For if it was well said in the Ethics, that a happy life is an unimpeded energy according to virtue; but virtue is a medium; the middle life must necessarily be the best, this medium being attainable by every one. It is also necessary that there should be the same definitions of the virtue and vice of a city and a polity; for a polity is a certain life of a city. But in all cities there are three parts; the first part consisting of very rich men; the second of very poor men; and the third of those who are between these. Since, therefore, it is acknowledged that mediocrity and the medium are the best, it is evident that of good fortune, also, the medium in the possession of it is the best of all; for it is then easy to be obedient to reason. But it is difficult for those to do this who are very beautiful, or very strong, or very noble, or very rich; or for the contraries to these, the very poor, or the very weak, or the very ignoble. For the former become insolent, and greatly depraved, but the latter wicked, and worthless in small concerns. Of unjust actions, however, some are produced through insolence, but others through improbity.
Farther still, these men are unfit for public offices and counsel; and an inaptitude to both these is injurious to cities. Besides those who are in excessive prosperity, and who surpass others in strength, riches and friends, and other things of the like kind, are neither willing, nor know how, to be governed; and this evil is present with them at home when they are children. For they are educated too delicately to be accustomed to obey their preceptors. But those who are excessively in want of these things, are very abject. Hence, the one do not know how to govern, but are adapted to be governed as slaves; and the others do not know how to submit to any government, but are disposed to govern despotically. Hence, too, the city consists of slaves and despots, but not of freemen; and likewise of those that are envious, and those that are disdainful; which things are very remote from friendship, and political communion. For communion is of a friendly nature; since men are not willing to associate even on the road with their enemies. But a city wishes to consist as much as possible of similars and equals; and this is principally the case with those who are in the middle state. Hence, that city must necessarily be governed in the best manner, which consists of those things from which we say a city is naturally formed; and these citizens enjoy more safety in cities than any other. For they will neither, like the poor, desire what belongs to others, nor will what they possess be coveted by others, as the poor do what belongs to the rich. And because no stratagems are formed against them, and they do not form stratagems against others, they live free from danger. On this account Phocylides prayed well, when he says,
“The middle state is best; this state be mine.”
It is evident, therefore, that the best political community is amongst those who are in the middle rank; and that those cities may be the best governed, in which the middle class is numerous and more powerful than both the other parts, or than either of them alone; for the addition of it causes a preponderance in the scale, and prevents contrary excesses from taking place. Hence, it is the greatest good fortune for those who are governed, to have moderate and sufficient property. For when some have a very great abundance, but others have no property, either the government will be in the hands of the lowest class of the people, or it will be a pure oligarchy, or a tyranny, through both these excesses. For a tyranny is produced from a robust democracy, and from an oligarchy; but in a much less degree from citizens of the middle rank, and who are nearly on an equality with each other. We shall, however, hereafter assign the cause of this, when we discuss the mutations of polities. But that the middle state is best, is evident; for this alone is free from sedition. For where the middle class are numerous, seditions and discord among the citizens are in the smallest degree produced. Large cities, also, for the same reason are less subject to sedition, because the middle class are numerous. But in small cities, it is easy to pass to the two extremes, so as to leave no medium. And the citizens in these, are nearly all of them poor, or all of them rich. Democracies, likewise, are more secure than oligarchies, and are of longer duration, through those of a middle class; for the citizens are more numerous, and in a greater degree participate of honours in democracies than in oligarchies. For when without these, the poor exceed in multitude, improbity takes place, and the government is rapidly destroyed. It is requisite, however, to consider as an indication of this, that the best legislators have been among the number of those of the middle class. For Solon was among these, as is evident from his poems; and Lycurgus, for he was not a king; and Charondas, and nearly most of the rest. But from these things it is evident, why with respect to most polities, some of them are democracies, but others oligarchies. For because in these, those in the middle class are frequently but few, such as are more numerous, whether it is the man of property, or the common people, who depart from the medium, take the government into their own hands; so that it either becomes a democracy, or an oligarchy. Besides, when in consequence of seditions and contests with each other, either the rich vanquish the poor, or the poor the rich, whichever of them happens to conquer, they will not establish a common or equal polity; but they will receive as the reward of victory, a superiority of power in the state; and the one will form a democracy, but the other an oligarchy.
Farther still, those who obtained the principality of Greece, looking to the respective polities in their own cities, established either democracies or oligarchies; not regarding what was advantageous to the cities, but what was beneficial to themselves. Hence, from these causes, either this middle polity has never existed, or rarely, and amongst a few. For of all those who have obtained this principality in former times, one man only has been persuaded to give the preference to this arrangement. It is, indeed, now an established custom with the inhabitants of cities, not to wish for an equality, but either to endeavour to govern, or when they are conquered to obey. From these things, therefore, it is evident what the best polity is, and through what cause it is the best. But with respect to other polities, since we have said that there are many democracies and many oligarchies, which of these must be admitted to be the first, and which the second in rank, and which in a consequent order is better or worse, it will not be difficult to perceive, the best polity being defined. For that polity is necessarily better than the rest which is nearest to this; and that is worse which is more distant from the medium; unless some one forms a judgment of it with a view to an hypothesis. I mean by this, that though frequently some other polity is more eligible, yet nothing prevents another polity from being more advantageous to certain persons.
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