The necessary people are either slaves who
minister to the wants of individuals, or mechanics and laborers who
are the servants of the community. These reflections carried a
little further will explain their position; and indeed what has been
said already is of itself, when understood, explanation enough.
Since there are many forms of government there must be many
varieties of citizen and especially of citizens who are subjects; so
that under some governments the mechanic and the laborer will be
citizens, but not in others, as, for example, in aristocracy or the
so-called government of the best (if there be such an one), in which
honors are given according to virtue and merit; for no man can
practice virtue who is living the life of a mechanic or laborer. In
oligarchies the qualification for office is high, and therefore no
laborer can ever be a citizen; but a mechanic may, for an actual
majority of them are rich. At Thebes there was a law that no man could
hold office who had not retired from business for ten years. But in
many states the law goes to the length of admitting aliens; for in
some democracies a man is a citizen though his mother only be a
citizen; and a similar principle is applied to illegitimate
children; the law is relaxed when there is a dearth of population. But
when the number of citizens increases, first the children of a male or
a female slave are excluded; then those whose mothers only are
citizens; and at last the right of citizenship is confined to those
whose fathers and mothers are both citizens.
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