Another way is to combine the poor and
the rich in one body, or to increase the middle class: thus an end
will be put to the revolutions which arise from inequality.
But above all every state should be so administered and so regulated
by law that its magistrates cannot possibly make money. In oligarchies
special precautions should be used against this evil. For the people
do not take any great offense at being kept out of the government-
indeed they are rather pleased than otherwise at having leisure for
their private business- but what irritates them is to think that their
rulers are stealing the public money; then they are doubly annoyed;
for they lose both honor and profit. If office brought no profit, then
and then only could democracy and aristocracy be combined; for both
notables and people might have their wishes gratified. All would be
able to hold office, which is the aim of democracy, and the notables
would be magistrates, which is the aim of aristocracy. And this result
may be accomplished when there is no possibility of making money out
of the offices; for the poor will not want to have them when there
is nothing to be gained from them- they would rather be attending to
their own concerns; and the rich, who do not want money from the
public treasury, will be able to take them; and so the poor will
keep to their work and grow rich, and the notables will not be
governed by the lower class.
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