Our conclusion, then, is that political society exists for the
sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship. Hence they who
contribute most to such a society have a greater share in it than
those who have the same or a greater freedom or nobility of birth
but are inferior to them in political virtue; or than those who exceed
them in wealth but are surpassed by them in virtue.
From what has been said it will be clearly seen that all the
partisans of different forms of government speak of a part of
justice only.
X
There is also a doubt as to what is to be the supreme power in the
state: Is it the multitude? Or the wealthy? Or the good? Or the one
best man? Or a tyrant? Any of these alternatives seems to involve
disagreeable consequences. If the poor, for example, because they
are more in number, divide among themselves the property of the
rich- is not this unjust? No, by heaven (will be the reply), for the
supreme authority justly willed it. But if this is not injustice, pray
what is? Again, when in the first division all has been taken, and the
majority divide anew the property of the minority, is it not
evident, if this goes on, that they will ruin the state? Yet surely,
virtue is not the ruin of those who possess her, nor is justice
destructive of a state; and therefore this law of confiscation clearly
cannot be just.
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