the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is
the end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each
thing is when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are
speaking of a man, a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause
and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end
and the best.

  Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that
man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by
mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above
humanity; he is like the

     Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one,

whom Homer denounces- the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war;
he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.

  Now, that man is more of a political animal than bees or any other
gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes
nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed
with the gift of speech. And whereas mere voice is but an indication
of pleasure or pain, and is therefore found in other animals (for
their nature attains to the perception of pleasure and pain and the
intimation of them to one another, and no further), the power of
speech is intended to set forth the expedient and inexpedient, and
therefore likewise the just and the unjust. And it is a characteristic
of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and
unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have
this sense makes a family and a state.

  Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to
the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part; for
example, if the whole body be destroyed, there will be no foot or
hand, except in an equivocal sense, as we might speak of a stone hand;
for when destroyed the hand will be no better than that. But things
are defined by their working and power; and we ought not to say that
they are the same when they no longer have their proper quality, but
only that they have the same name. The proof that the state is a
creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual,
when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a
part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in
society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must
be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state. A social
instinct is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first
founded the state was the greatest of benefactors. For man, when
perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and
justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more
dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with arms, meant to be used
by intelligence and virtue, which he may use for the worst ends.
Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is the most unholy and the most
savage of animals, and the most full of lust and gluttony. But justice
is the bond of men in states, for the administration of justice, which
is the determination of what is just, is the principle of order in
political society.

                                   III

  Seeing then that the state is made up of households, before speaking
of the state we must speak of the management of the household. The
parts of household management correspond to the persons who compose
the household, and a complete household consists of slaves and
freemen. Now we should begin by examining everything in its fewest
possible elements; and the first and fewest possible parts of a family
are master and slave, husband and wife, father and children. We have
therefore to consider what each of these three relations is and
ought to be: I mean the relation of master and servant, the marriage
relation (the conjunction of man and wife has no name of its own), and
thirdly, the procreative relation (this also has no proper name).
And there is another element of a household, the so-called art of
getting wealth, which, according to some, is identical with
household management, according to others, a principal part of it; the
nature of this art will also have to be considered by us.

  Let us first speak of master and slave, looking to the needs of
practical life and also seeking to attain some better theory of
their relation than exists at present. For some are of opinion that
the rule of a master is a science, and that the management of a
household, and the mastership of slaves, and the political and royal
rule, as I was saying at the outset, are all the same. Others affirm
that the rule of a master over slaves is contrary to nature, and
that the distinction between slave and freeman exists by law only, and
not by nature; and being an interference with nature is therefore
unjust.

                                    IV

  Property is a part of the household, and the art of acquiring
property is a part of the art of managing the household; for no man
can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he be provided with
necessaries. And as in the arts which have a definite sphere the
workers must have their own proper instruments for the
accomplishment of their work, so it is in the management of a
household. Now instruments are of various sorts; some are living,
others lifeless; in the rudder, the pilot of a ship has a lifeless, in
the look-out man, a living instrument; for in the arts the servant
is a kind of instrument. Thus, too, a possession is an instrument
for maintaining life. And so, in the arrangement of the family, a
slave is a living possession, and property a number of such
instruments; and the servant is himself an instrument which takes
precedence of all other instruments. For if every instrument could