e state and show what it is; and we shall
the better understand its positive nature as we have already described
an oligarchy and a democracy; for a free state is indeed nothing more
than a mixture of them, and it has been usual to call those which
incline most to a democracy, a free state; those which incline most to
an oligarchy, an aristocracy, because those who are rich are generally
men of family and education; besides, they enjoy those things which
others are often guilty of crimes to procure: for which reason they are
regarded as men of worth and honour and note.

Since, then, it is the genius of an aristocracy to allot the larger
part of the government to the best citizens, they therefore say, that
an oligarchy is chiefly composed of those men who are worthy and
honourable: now it [1294a] seems impossible that where the government
is in the hands of the good, there the laws should not be good, but bad;
or, on the contrary, that where the government is in the hands of the
bad, there the laws should be good; nor is a government well constituted
because the laws are, without at the same time care is taken that they
are observed; for to enforce obedience to the laws which it makes is one
proof of a good constitution in the state-another is, to have laws well
calculated for those who are to abide by them; for if they are improper
they must be obeyed: and this may be done two ways, either by their
being the best relative to the particular state, or the best absolutely.
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,