fference between one government and another:
for in democracies the whole community partakes of everything, but in
oligarchies it is different.

Since we are inquiring what is the best government possible, and it is
admitted to be that in which the citizens are happy; and that, as we
have already said, it is impossible to obtain happiness without virtue;
it follows, that in the best-governed states, where the citizens are
really men of intrinsic and not relative goodness, none of them should
be permitted to exercise any mechanic employment or follow merchandise,
as being ignoble and destructive to virtue; neither should they be
husband-[1329a] men, that they may be at leisure to improve in virtue
and perform the duty they owe to the state. With respect to the
employments of a soldier, a senator, and a judge, which are evidently
necessary to the community, shall they be allotted to different persons,
or shall the same person execute both? This question, too, is easily
answered: for in some cases the same persons may execute them, in
others they should be different, where the different employments require
different abilities, as when courage is wanting for one, judgment for
the other, there they should be allotted to different persons; but when
it is evident, that it is impossible to oblige those who have arms
in their hands, and can insist on their own terms, to be always under
command; there these different employments should be trusted to one
person; for those who have arms in their hands have it in their option
whether they will or will not assume the supreme power: to these two
(namely, those who have courage and judgment) the government must be
entrusted; but not in the same manner, but as nature directs; what
requires courage to the young, what requires judgment to the old; for
with the young is courage, with the old is wisdom: thus each will be
allotted the part they are fit for according to their different merits.
It is also necessary that the landed property should belong to these
men; for it is necessary that the citizens should be rich, and these are
the men proper for citizens; for no mechanic ought to be admitted to the
rights of a citizen, nor any other sort of people whose employment is
not entirely noble, honourable, and virtuous; this is evident from the
principle we at first set out with; for to be happy it is necessary
to be virtuous; and no one should say that a city is happy while he
considers only o