I say 'nearly,' for we ought not to require the same
minuteness in theory as in the facts given by perception.
VIII
As in other natural compounds the conditions of a composite whole
are not necessarily organic parts of it, so in a state or in any other
combination forming a unity not everything is a part, which is a
necessary condition. The members of an association have necessarily
some one thing the same and common to all, in which they share equally
or unequally for example, food or land or any other thing. But where
there are two things of which one is a means and the other an end,
they have nothing in common except that the one receives what the
other produces. Such, for example, is the relation which workmen and
tools stand to their work; the house and the builder have nothing in
common, but the art of the builder is for the sake of the house. And
so states require property, but property, even though living beings
are included in it, is no part of a state; for a state is not a
community of living beings only, but a community of equals, aiming
at the best life possible. Now, whereas happiness is the highest good,
being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can
attain, while others have little or none of it, the various
qualities of men are clearly the reason why there are various kinds of
states and many forms of government; for different men seek after
happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for
themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
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