The virtues of those are indeed different, but a
good citizen must necessarily be endowed with them; he ought also to
know in what manner freemen ought to govern, as well as be governed:
and this, too, is the duty of a good man. And if the temperance and
justice of him who commands is different from his who, though a
freeman, is under command, it is evident that the virtues of a good
citizen cannot be the same as justice, for instance but must be of a
different species in these two different situations, as the temperance
and courage of a man and a woman are different from each other; for a
man would appear a coward who had only that courage which would be
graceful in a woman, and a woman would be thought a talker who should
take as large a part in the conversation as would become a man of
consequence.
The domestic employments of each of them are also different; it is the
man's business to acquire subsistence, the woman's to take care of it.
But direction and knowledge of public affairs is a virtue peculiar to
those who govern, while all others seem to be equally requisite for
both parties; but with this the governed have no concern, it is theirs
to entertain just notions: they indeed are like flute-makers, while
those who govern are the musicians who play on them. And thus much to
show whether the virtue of a good man and an excellent citizen is the
same, or if it is different, and also how far it is the same, and how
far different.
CHAPTER V
But with respect to citizens there is a doubt remaining, whether those
only are truly so who are allowed to share in the government, or
whether the mechanics also are to be considered as such? for if those
who are not permitted to rule are to be reckoned among them, it is
impossible that the virtue of all the citizens should be the same, for
these also are citizens; and if none of them are admitted to be
citizens, where shall they be ranked? for they are neither [1278a]
sojourners nor foreigners? or shall we say that there will no
inconvenience arise from their not being citizens, as they are neither
slaves nor freedmen: for this is certainly true, that all those are
not citizens who are necessary to the existence of a city, as boys are
not citizens in the same manner that men are, for those are perfectly
so, the others under some conditions; for they are citizens, though
imperfect ones: for in former times among some people the mechanics
were either slaves or foreigners, for which reason many of them are so
now: and indeed the best regulated states will not permit a mechanic
to be a citizen; but if it be allowed them, we cannot then attribute
the virtue we have described to every citizen or freeman, but to those
only who are disengaged from servile offices.
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