me virtues which constitute a good man make a valuable citizen, or
different; and if a particular inquiry is necessary for this matter we
must first give a general description of the virtues of a good citizen;
for as a sailor is one of those who make up a community, so is a
citizen, although the province of one sailor may be different from
another's (for one is a rower, another a steersman, a third a boatswain,
and so on, each having their several appointments), it is evident that
the most accurate description of any one good sailor must refer to
his peculiar abilities, yet there are some things in which the same
description may be applied to the whole crew, as the safety of the ship
is the common business of all of them, for this is the general centre of
all their cares: so also with respect to citizens, although they may
in a few particulars be very different, yet there is one care common to
them all, the safety of the community, for the community of the citizens
composes the state; for which reason the virtue of a citizen has
necessarily a reference to the state. But if there are different sorts
of governments, it is evident that those actions which constitute the
virtue of an excellent citizen in one community will not constitute it
in another; wherefore the virtue of such a one cannot be perfect: but we
say, a man is good when his virtues are perfect; from whence it follows,
that an excellent citizen does not possess that virtue which constitutes
a good man. Those who are any ways doubtful concerning this question
may be convinced of the truth of it by examining into the best formed
states: for, if it is impossible that a city should consist entirely of
excellent citizens (while it is necessary that every one should do well
in his calling, in which consists his excellence, as it is impossible
that all the citizens should have the same [1277a] qualifications) it
is impossible that the virtue of a citizen and a good man should be the
same; for all should possess the virtue of an excellent citizen: for
from hence necessarily arise the perfection of the city: but that every
one should possess the virtue of a good man is impossible without
all the citizens in a well-regulated state were necessarily virtuous.
Besides, as a city is composed of dissimilar parts, as an animal is of
life and body; the soul of reason and appetite; a family of a man and
his wife--property of a master and a slave; in the same manner, as a
city is