Every man should be responsible to
others, nor should any one be allowed to do just as he pleases; for
where absolute freedom is allowed, there is nothing to restrain the
evil which is inherent in every man. But the principle of
responsibility secures that which is the greatest good in states;
the right persons rule and are prevented from doing wrong, and the
people have their due. It is evident that this is the best kind of
democracy, and why? Because the people are drawn from a certain class.
Some of the ancient laws of most states were, all of them, useful with
a view to making the people husbandmen. They provided either that no
one should possess more than a certain quantity of land, or that, if
he did, the land should not be within a certain distance from the town
or the acropolis. Formerly in many states there was a law forbidding
any one to sell his original allotment of land. There is a similar law
attributed to Oxylus, which is to the effect that there should be a
certain portion of every man's land on which he could not borrow
money. A useful corrective to the evil of which I am speaking would be
the law of the Aphytaeans, who, although they are numerous, and do not
possess much land, are all of them husbandmen. For their properties
are reckoned in the census; not entire, but only in such small
portions that even the poor may have more than the amount required.
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