Similarly, one citizen differs from
another, but the salvation of the community is the common business
of them all. This community is the constitution; the virtue of the
citizen must therefore be relative to the constitution of which he
is a member. If, then, there are many forms of government, it is
evident that there is not one single virtue of the good citizen
which is perfect virtue. But we say that the good man is he who has
one single virtue which is perfect virtue. Hence it is evident that
the good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which
makes a good man.
The same question may also be approached by another road, from a
consideration of the best constitution. If the state cannot be
entirely composed of good men, and yet each citizen is expected to
do his own business well, and must therefore have virtue, still
inasmuch as all the citizens cannot be alike, the virtue of the
citizen and of the good man cannot coincide. All must have the
virtue of the good citizen- thus, and thus only, can the state be
perfect; but they will not have the virtue of a good man, unless we
assume that in the good state all the citizens must be good.
Again, the state, as composed of unlikes, may be compared to the
living being: as the first elements into which a living being is
resolved are soul and body, as soul is made up of rational principle
and appetite, the family of husband and wife, property of master and
slave, so of all these, as well as other dissimilar elements, the
state is composed; and, therefore, the virtue of all the citizens
cannot possibly be the same, any more than the excellence of the
leader of a chorus is the same as that of the performer who stands
by his side.
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