We must
see also how many things are indispensable to the existence of a
state, for what we call the parts of a state will be found among the
indispensables. Let us then enumerate the functions of a state, and we
shall easily elicit what we want:
First, there must be food; secondly, arts, for life requires many
instruments; thirdly, there must be arms, for the members of a
community have need of them, and in their own hands, too, in order
to maintain authority both against disobedient subjects and against
external assailants; fourthly, there must be a certain amount of
revenue, both for internal needs, and for the purposes of war;
fifthly, or rather first, there must be a care of religion which is
commonly called worship; sixthly, and most necessary of all there must
be a power of deciding what is for the public interest, and what is
just in men's dealings with one another.
These are the services which every state may be said to need. For
a state is not a mere aggregate of persons, but a union of them
sufficing for the purposes of life; and if any of these things be
wanting, it is as we maintain impossible that the community can be
absolutely self-sufficing. A state then should be framed with a view
to the fulfillment of these functions. There must be husbandmen to
procure food, and artisans, and a warlike and a wealthy class, and
priests, and judges to decide what is necessary and expedient.
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