state and every member of it.

CHAPTER IV

As I have now finished what was introductory to this subject, and
considered at large the nature of other states, it now remains that I
should first say what ought to be the establishment of a city which one
should form according to one's wish; for no good state can exist without
a moderate proportion of what is necessary. Many things therefore
ought to be forethought of as desirable, but none of them such as are
impossible: I mean relative to the number of citizens and the extent
of the territory: for as other artificers, such as the weaver and the
shipwright, ought to have such materials as are fit for their work,
since so much the better they are, by so much [1326a] superior will the
work itself necessarily be; so also ought the legislator and politician
endeavour to procure proper materials for the business they have in
hand. Now the first and principal instrument of the politician is the
number of the people; he should therefore know how many, and what they
naturally ought to be: in like manner the country, how large, and what
it is. Most persons think that it is necessary for a city to be large to
be happy: but, should this be true, they cannot tell what is a large one
and what a small one; for according to the multitude of the inhabitants
they estimate the greatness of it; but they ought rather to consider its
strength than its numbers; for a state has a certain object in view, and
from the power which it has in itself of accomplishing it, its greatness
ought to be estimated; as a person might say, that Hippocrates was a
greater physician, though not a greater man, than one that exceeded him
in the size of his body: but if it was proper to determine the strength
of the city from the number of the inhabitants, it should never be
collected from the multitude in general who may happen to be in it;
for in a city there must necessarily be many slaves, sojourners, and
foreigners; but from those who are really part of the city and properly
constitute its members; a multitude of these is indeed a proof of a
large city, but in a state where a large number of mechanics inhabit,
and but few soldiers, such a state cannot be great; for the greatness of
the city, and the number of men in it, are not the same thing. This too
is evident from fact, that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to
govern properly a very numerous body of men; for of all the states which
appear we