But first of all, I must determine what natures are suited for
government by a king, and what for an aristocracy, and what for a
constitutional government.
A people who are by nature capable of producing a race superior in
the virtue needed for political rule are fitted for kingly government;
and a people submitting to be ruled as freemen by men whose virtue
renders them capable of political command are adapted for an
aristocracy; while the people who are suited for constitutional
freedom are those among whom there naturally exists a warlike
multitude able to rule and to obey in turn by a law which gives office
to the well-to-do according to their desert. But when a whole family
or some individual, happens to be so pre-eminent in virtue as to
surpass all others, then it is just that they should be the royal
family and supreme over all, or that this one citizen should be king
of the whole nation. For, as I said before, to give them authority
is not only agreeable to that ground of right which the founders of
all states, whether aristocratical, or oligarchical, or again
democratical, are accustomed to put forward (for these all recognize
the claim of excellence, although not the same excellence), but
accords with the principle already laid down. For surely it would
not be right to kill, or ostracize, or exile such a person, or require
that he should take his turn in being governed.
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