An aristocracy seems most
likely to confer the honours of the state on the virtuous; for virtue
is the object of an aristocracy, riches of an oligarchy, and liberty
of a democracy; for what is approved of by the majority will prevail
in all or in each of these three different states; and that which
seems good to most of those who compose the community will prevail:
for what is called a state prevails in many communities, which aim at
a mixture of rich and poor, riches and liberty: as for the rich, they
are usually supposed to take the place of the worthy and honourable.
As there are three things which claim an equal rank in the state,
freedom, riches, and virtue (for as for the fourth, rank, it is an
attendant on two of the others, for virtue and riches are the origin
of family), it is evident, that the conjuncture of the rich and the
poor make up a free state; but that all three tend to an aristocracy
more than any other, except that which is truly so, which holds the
first rank.
We have already seen that there are governments different from a
monarchy, a democracy, and an oligarchy; and what they are, and
wherein they differ from each other; and also aristocracies and states
properly so called, which are derived from them; and it is evident
that these are not much unlike each other.
CHAPTER IX
We shall next proceed to show how that government which is peculiarly
called a state arises alongside of democracy and oligarchy, and how it
ought to be established; and this will at the same time show what are
the proper boundaries of both these governments, for we must mark out
wherein they differ from one another, and then from both these compose
a state of such parts of each of them as will show from whence they
were taken.
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