labour of their hands, and amongst these all mechanics are
included; [1277b] for which reasons such workmen, in some states, were
not formerly admitted into any share in the government; till at length
democracies were established: it is not therefore proper for any man
of honour, or any citizen, or any one who engages in public affairs, to
learn these servile employments without they have occasion for them for
their own use; for without this was observed the distinction between a
master and a slave would be lost. But there is a government of another
sort, in which men govern those who are their equals in rank, and
freemen, which we call a political government, in which men learn to
command by first submitting to obey, as a good general of horse, or a
commander-in-chief, must acquire a knowledge of their duty by
having been long under the command of another, and the like in every
appointment in the army: for well is it said, no one knows how to
command who has not himself been under command of another. 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