First among the materials required by the statesman is population:
he will consider what should be the number and character of the
citizens, and then what should be the size and character of the
country. Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to
be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea what is a
large and what a small state. For they judge of the size of the city
by the number of the inhabitants; whereas they ought to regard, not
their number, but their power. A city too, like an individual, has a
work to do; and that city which is best adapted to the fulfillment
of its work is to be deemed greatest, in the same sense of the word
great in which Hippocrates might be called greater, not as a man,
but as a physician, than some one else who was taller And even if we
reckon greatness by numbers, we ought not to include everybody, for
there must always be in cities a multitude of slaves and sojourners
and foreigners; but we should include those only who are members of
the state, and who form an essential part of it. The number of the
latter is a proof of the greatness of a city; but a city which
produces numerous artisans and comparatively few soldiers cannot be
great, for a great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Moreover, experience shows that a very populous city can rarely, if
ever, be well governed; since all cities which have a reputation for
good government have a limit of population.
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