t only necessary but useful, and from the hour of their
birth some are marked out for those purposes, and others for the other,
and there are many species of both sorts. And the better those are who
are governed the better also is the government, as for instance of man,
rather than the brute creation: for the more excellent the materials
are with which the work is finished, the more excellent certainly is the
work; and wherever there is a governor and a governed, there certainly
is some work produced; for whatsoever is composed of many parts, which
jointly become one, whether conjunct or separate, evidently show the
marks of governing and governed; and this is true of every living thing
in all nature; nay, even in some things which partake not of life, as
in music; but this probably would be a disquisition too foreign to our
present purpose. Every living thing in the first place is composed of
soul and body, of these the one is by nature the governor, the other the
governed; now if we would know what is natural, we ought to search for
it in those subjects in which nature appears most perfect, and not in
those which are corrupted; we should therefore examine into a man who
is most perfectly formed both in soul and body, in whom this is evident,
for in the depraved and vicious the body seems [1254b] to rule rather
than the soul, on account of their being corrupt and contrary to nature.
We may then, as we affirm, perceive in an animal the first principles
of herile and political government; for the soul governs the body as the
master governs his slave; the mind governs the appetite with a political
or a kingly power, which shows that it is both natural and advantageous
that the body should be governed by the soul, and the pathetic part by
the mind, and that part which is possessed of reason; but to have no
ruling power, or an improper one, is hurtful to all; and this holds
true not only of man, but of other animals also, for tame animals are
naturally better than wild ones, and it is advantageous that both should
be under subjection to man; for this is productive of their common
safety: so is it naturally with the male and the female; the one is
superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed;
and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all
mankind. Those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the
body is to the soul, are to be thus disposed of, as the proper use of
them is