The whole is naturally
superior to the part, and he who has this pre-eminence is in the
relation of a whole to a part. But if so, the only alternative is that
he should have the supreme power, and that mankind should obey him,
not in turn, but always. These are the conclusions at which we
arrive respecting royalty and its various forms, and this is the
answer to the question, whether it is or is not advantageous to
states, and to which, and how.
XVIII
We maintain that the true forms of government are three, and that
the best must be that which is administered by the best, and in
which there is one man, or a whole family, or many persons,
excelling all the others together in virtue, and both rulers and
subjects are fitted, the one to rule, the others to be ruled, in
such a manner as to attain the most eligible life. We showed at the
commencement of our inquiry that the virtue of the good man is
necessarily the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect
state. Clearly then in the same manner, and by the same means
through which a man becomes truly good, he will frame a state that
is to be ruled by an aristocracy or by a king, and the same
education and the same habits will be found to make a good man and a
man fit to be a statesman or a king.
Having arrived at these conclusions, we must proceed to speak of the
perfect state, and describe how it comes into being and is
established.
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