the same kind of animal should have any
very great difference in its mouth or ears; so that when all these are
collected, who happen to have these things similar in all, they make up
a species of animals of which there are as many as there are of these
general combinations of necessary parts.

The same thing is true of what are called states; for a city is not made
of one but many parts, as has already been often said; one of which is
those who supply it with provisions, called husbandmen, another called
mechanics, [1291a] whose employment is in the manual arts, without which
the city could not be inhabited; of these some are busied about what is
absolutely necessary, others in what contribute to the elegancies and
pleasures of life; the third sort are your exchange-men, I mean by these
your buyers, sellers, merchants, and victuallers; the fourth are your
hired labourers or workmen; the fifth are the men-at-arms, a rank not
less useful than the other, without you would have the community slaves
to every invader; but what cannot defend itself is unworthy of the name
of a city; for a city is self-sufficient, a slave not. So that when
Socrates, in Plato's Republic, says that a city is necessarily composed
of four sorts of people, he speaks elegantly but not correctly, and
these are, according to him, weavers, husbandmen, shoe-makers, and
builders; he then adds, as if these were not sufficient, smiths,
herdsmen for what cattle are necessary, and also merchants and
victuallers, and these are by way of appendix to his first list; as if
a city was established for necessity, and not happiness, or as if a
shoe-maker and a husbandman were equally useful. He reckons not the
military a part before the increase of territory and joining to the
borders of the neighbouring powers will make war necessary: and even
amongst them who compose his four divisions, or whoever have any
connection with each other, it will be necessary to have some one to
distribute justice, and determine between man and man. If, then, the
mind is a more valuable part of man than the body, every one would
wish to have those things more regarded in his city which tend to the
advantage of these than common matters, such are war and justice; to
which may be added council, which is the business of civil wisdom (nor
is it of any consequence whether these different employments are filled
by different persons or one, as the same man is oftentimes both a
soldier and a h