Politics: A Treatise on Government
or an individual, for the whole must necessarily be prior to the parts,
for if you take away the whole man, you cannot say a foot or a hand
remains, unless by equivocation, as supposing a hand of stone to be
made, but that would only be a dead one; but everything is understood to
be this or that by its energic qualities and powers, so that when these
no longer remain, neither can that be said to be the same, but something
of the same name. That a city then precedes an individual is plain,
for if an individual is not in himself sufficient to compose a perfect
government, he is to a city as other parts are to a whole; but he that
is incapable of society, or so complete in himself as not to want it,
makes no part of a city, as a beast or a god. There is then in all
persons a natural impetus to associate with each other in this manner,
and he who first founded civil society was the cause of the greatest
good; for as by the completion of it man is the most excellent of all
living beings, so without law and justice he would be the worst of all,
for nothing is so difficult to subdue as injustice in arms: but these
arms man is born with, namely, prudence and valour, which he may apply
to the most opposite purposes, for he who abuses them will be the most
wicked, the most cruel, the most lustful, and most gluttonous being
imaginable; for justice is a political virtue, by the rules of it the
state is regulated, and these rules are the criterion of what is right.
CHAPTER III
SINCE it is now evident of what parts a city is composed, it will be
necessary to treat first of family government, for every city is made
up of families, and every family [1253b] has again its separate parts of
which it is composed. When a family is complete, it consists of freemen
and slaves; but as in every subject we should begin with examining into
the smallest parts of which it consists, and as the first and smallest
parts of a family are the master and slave, the husband and wife, the
father and child, let us first inquire into these three, what each of
them may be, and what they ought to be; that is to say, the herile, the
nuptial, and the paternal. Let these then be considered as the three
distinct parts of a family: some think that the providing what is
necessary for the family is something different from the government of
it, others that this is the greatest part of it; it shall be considered
separately; but we will first speak of a master and a slave, that we
may both understand the nature of those things which are absolutely
necessary, and also try if we can learn anything better on this subject
than what is already known. Some persons have thought that the power of
the master over his slave originates from his superior knowledge, and
that this knowledge is the same in the master, the magistrate, and the
king, as we have already said; but others think that herile government
is contrary to nature, and that it is the law which makes one man a
slave and another free, but that in nature there is no difference; for
which reason that power cannot be founded in justice, but in force.
CHAPTER IV
Since then a subsistence is necessary in every family, the means of
procuring it certainly makes up part of the management of a family, for
without necessaries it is impossible to live, and to live well. As
in all arts which are brought to perfection it is necessary that they
should have their proper instruments if they would complete their works,
so is it in the art of managing a family: now of instruments some of
them are alive, others inanimate; thus with respect to the pilot of the
ship, the tiller is without life, the sailor is alive; for a servant
is as an instrument in many arts. Thus property is as an instrument
to living; an estate is a multitude of instruments; so a slave is an
animated instrument, but every one that can minister of himself is more
valuable than any other instrument; for if every instrument, at command,
or from a preconception of its master's will, could accomplish its work
(as the story goes of the statues of Daedalus; or what the poet tells us
of the tripods of Vulcan, "that they moved of their own accord into the
assembly of the gods "), the shuttle would then weave, and the lyre play
of itself; nor would the architect want servants, or the [1254a] master
slaves. Now what are generally called instruments are the efficients
of something else, but possessions are what we simply use: thus with a
shuttle we make something else for our use; but we only use a coat, or a
bed: since then making and using differ from each other in species, and
they both require their instruments, it is necessary that these should
be different from each other. Now life is itself what we use, and not
what we employ as the efficient of something else; for which reason the
services of a slave are for use. A possession may be considered in the
same nature as a part of anything; now a part is not only a part of
something, but also is nothing else; so is a possession; therefore a
master is only the master of the slave, but no part of him; but the
slave is not only the slave of the master, but nothing else but that.
This fully explains what is the nature of a slave, and what are his
capacities; for that being who by nature is nothing of himself, but
totally another's, and is a man, is a slave by nature; and that man who
is the property of another, is his mere chattel, though he continues a
man; but a chattel is an instrument for use, separate from the body.
CHAPTER V
But whether any person is such by nature, and whether it is advantageous
and just for any one to be a slave or no, or whether all slavery is
contrary to nature, shall be considered hereafter; not that it is
difficult to determine it upon general principles, or to understand
it from matters of fact; for that some should govern, and others be
governed, is not only necessary but useful, and from the hour of their
birth some are marked out for those purposes, and others for the other,
and there are many species of both sorts. And the better those are who
are governed the better also is the government, as for instance of man,
rather than the brute creation: for the more excellent the materials
are with which the work is finished, the more excellent certainly is the
work; and wherever there is a governor and a governed, there certainly
is some work produced; for whatsoever is composed of many parts, which
jointly become one, whether conjunct or separate, evidently show the
marks of governing and governed; and this is true of every living thing
in all nature; nay, even in some things which partake not of life, as
in music; but this probably would be a disquisition too foreign to our
present purpose. Every living thing in the first place is composed of
soul and body, of these the one is by nature the governor, the other the
governed; now if we would know what is natural, we ought to search for
it in those subjects in which nature appears most perfect, and not in
those which are corrupted; we should therefore examine into a man who
is most perfectly formed both in soul and body, in whom this is evident,
for in the depraved and vicious the body seems [1254b] to rule rather
than the soul, on account of their being corrupt and contrary to nature.
We may then, as we affirm, perceive in an animal the first principles
of herile and political government; for the soul governs the body as the
master governs his slave; the mind governs the appetite with a political
or a kingly power, which shows that it is both natural and advantageous
that the body should be governed by the soul, and the pathetic part by
the mind, and that part which is possessed of reason; but to have no
ruling power, or an improper one, is hurtful to all; and this holds
true not only of man, but of other animals also, for tame animals are
naturally better than wild ones, and it is advantageous that both should
be under subjection to man; for this is productive of their common
safety: so is it naturally with the male and the female; the one is
superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed;
and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all
mankind. Those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the
body is to the soul, are to be thus disposed of, as the proper use of
them is their bodies, in which their excellence consists; and if what I
have said be true, they are slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to
them to be always under government. He then is by nature formed a slave
who is qualified to become the chattel of another person, and on that
account is so, and who has just reason enough to know that there is such
a faculty, without being indued with the use of it; for other animals
have no perception of reason, but are entirely guided by appetite,
and indeed they vary very little in their use from each other; for the
advantage which we receive, both from slaves and tame animals, arises
from their bodily strength administering to our necessities; for it
is the intention of nature to make the bodies of slaves and freemen
different from each other, that the one should be robust for their
necessary purposes, the others erect, useless indeed for what slaves are
employed in, but fit for civil life, which is divided into the duties of
war and peace; though these rules do not always take place, for slaves
have sometimes the bodies of freemen, sometimes the souls; if then it
is evident that if some bodies are as much more excellent than others as
the statues of the gods excel the human form, every one will allow that
the inferior ought to be slaves to the superior; and if this is true
with respect to the body, it is still juster to determine in the same
manner, when we consider the soul; though it is not so easy to perceive
the beauty of [1255a] the soul as it is of the body. Since then some
men are slaves by nature, and others are freemen, it is clear that where
slavery is advantageous to any one, then it is just to make him a slave.
CHAPTER VI
But it is not difficult to perceive that those who maintain the contrary
opinion have some reason on their side; for a man may become a slave two
different ways; for he may be so by law also, and this law is a certain
compact, by which whatsoever is taken in battle is adjudged to be the
property of the conquerors: but many persons who are conversant in law
call in question this pretended right, and say that it would be hard
that a man should be compelled by violence to be the slave and subject
of another who had the power to compel him, and was his superior in
strength; and upon this subject, even of those who are wise, some think
one way and some another; but the cause of this doubt and variety of
opinions arises from hence, that great abilities, when accompanied with
proper means, are generally able to succeed by force: for victory is
always owing to a superiority in some advantageous circumstances; so
that it seems that force never prevails but in consequence of great
abilities. But still the dispute concerning the justice of it remains;
for some persons think, that justice consists in benevolence, others
think it just that the powerful should govern: in the midst of these
contrary opinions, there are no reasons sufficient to convince us, that
the right of being master and governor ought not to be placed with those
who have the greatest abilities. Some persons, entirely resting upon the
right which the law gives (for that which is legal is in some respects
just), insist upon it that slavery occasioned by war is just, not that
they say it is wholly so, for it may happen that the principle upon
which the wars were commenced is unjust; moreover no one will say that a