Politics   

together, as the barbarians still are. Every family is ruled by the
eldest, and therefore in the colonies of the family the kingly form of
government prevailed because they were of the same blood. As Homer
says:
"Each one gives law to his children and to his wives. "
For they lived dispersedly, as was the manner in ancient times.
Wherefore men say that the Gods have a king, because they themselves
either are or were in ancient times under the rule of a king. For they
imagine, not only the forms of the Gods, but their ways of life to be
like their own.
When several villages are united in a single complete community, large
enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into
existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in
existence for the sake of a good life. And therefore, if the earlier
forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the end of
them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each thing is
when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking of a
man, a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause and end of a thing
is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best.
Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that
man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by
mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above
humanity; he is like the
"Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one, "
whom Homer denounces- the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war;
he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.
Now, that man is more of a political animal than bees or any other
gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing
in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift
of speech. And whereas mere voice is but an indication of pleasure or
pain, and is therefore found in other animals (for their nature
attains to the perception of pleasure and pain and the intimation of
them to one another, and no further), the power of speech is intended
to set forth the expedient and inexpedient, and therefore likewise the
just and the unjust. And it is a characteristic of man that he alone
has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and
the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family
and a state.
Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the
individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part; for
example, if the whole body be destroyed, there will be no foot or
hand, except in an equivocal sense, as we might speak of a stone hand;
for when destroyed the hand will be no better than that. But things
are defined by their working and power; and we ought not to say that
they are the same when they no longer have their proper quality, but
only that they have the same name. The proof that the state is a
creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual,
when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part
in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in society, or
who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a
beast or a god: he is no part of a state. A social instinct is
implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first founded the state
was the greatest of benefactors. For man, when perfected, is the best
of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst
of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is
equipped at birth with arms, meant to be used by intelligence and
virtue, which he may use for the worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not
virtue, he is the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and the
most full of lust and gluttony. But justice is the bond of men in
states, for the administration of justice, which is the determination
of what is just, is the principle of order in political society.
Part III
Seeing then that the state is made up of households, before speaking
of the state we must speak of the management of the household. The