It is evident, therefore, that both of them
must have a share of virtue, but varying as natural subjects also vary
among themselves. Here the very constitution of the soul has shown
us the way; in it one part naturally rules, and the other is
subject, and the virtue of the ruler we in maintain to be different
from that of the subject; the one being the virtue of the rational,
and the other of the irrational part. Now, it is obvious that the same
principle applies generally, and therefore almost all things rule
and are ruled according to nature. But the kind of rule differs; the
freeman rules over the slave after another manner from that in which
the male rules over the female, or the man over the child; although
the parts of the soul are present in an of them, they are present in
different degrees. For the slave has no deliberative faculty at all;
the woman has, but it is without authority, and the child has, but
it is immature. So it must necessarily be supposed to be with the
moral virtues also; all should partake of them, but only in such
manner and degree as is required by each for the fulfillment of his
duty. Hence the ruler ought to have moral virtue in perfection, for
his function, taken absolutely, demands a master artificer, and
rational principle is such an artificer; the subjects, oil the other
hand, require only that measure of virtue which is proper to each of
them.
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