This last he must know in order that agreements and commercial
treaties may be made with the countries concerned. There are,
indeed, two sorts of state to which he must see that his countrymen
give no cause for offence, states stronger than his own, and states
with which it is advantageous to trade.

  But while he must, for security's sake, be able to take all this
into account, he must before all things understand the subject of
legislation; for it is on a country's laws that its whole welfare
depends. He must, therefore, know how many different forms of
constitution there are; under what conditions each of these will
prosper and by what internal developments or external attacks each
of them tends to be destroyed. When I speak of destruction through
internal developments I refer to the fact that all constitutions,
except the best one of all, are destroyed both by not being pushed far
enough and by being pushed too far. Thus, democracy loses its
vigour, and finally passes into oligarchy, not only when it is not
pushed far enough, but also when it is pushed a great deal too far;
just as the aquiline and the snub nose not only turn into normal noses
by not being aquiline or snub enough, but also by being too
violently aquiline or snub arrive at a condition in which they no
longer look like noses at all. It is useful, in framing laws, not only
to study the past history of one's own country, in order to understand
which constitution is desirable for it now, but also to have a
knowledge of the constitutions of other nations, and so to learn for
what kinds of nation the various kinds of constitution are suited.
From this we can see that books of travel are useful aids to
legislation, since from these we may learn the laws and customs of
different races. The political speaker will also find the researches
of historians useful. But all this is the business of political
science and not of rhetoric.

  These, then, are the most important kinds of information which the
political speaker must possess. Let us now go back and state the
premisses from which he will have to argue in favour of adopting or
rejecting measures regarding these and other matters.

                                 5

  It may be said that every individual man and all men in common aim
at a certain end which determines what they choose and what they
avoid. This end, to sum it up briefly, is happiness and its
constituents. Let us, then, by way of illustration only, ascertain
what is in general the nature of happiness, and what are the
elements of its constituent parts. For all advice to do things or
not to do them is concerned with happiness and with the things that
make for or against it; whatever creates or increases happiness or
some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers
happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.

  We may define happiness as prosperity combined with virtue; or as
independence of life; or as the secure enjoyment of the maximum of
pleasure; or as a good condition of property and body, together with
the power of guarding one's property and body and making use of
them. That happiness is one or more of these things, pretty well
everybody agrees.

  From this definition of happiness it follows that its constituent
parts are:-good birth, plenty of friends, good friends, wealth, good
children, plenty of children, a happy old age, also such bodily
excellences as health, beauty, strength, large stature, athletic
powers, together with fame, honour, good luck, and virtue. A man
cannot fail to be completely independent if he possesses these
internal and these external goods; for besides these there are no
others to have. (Goods of the soul and of the body are internal.
Good birth, friends, money, and honour are external.) Further, we
think that he should possess resources and luck, in order to make
his life really secure. As we have already ascertained what
happiness in general is, so now let us try to ascertain what of
these parts of it is.

  Now good birth in a race or a state means that its members are
indigenous or ancient: that its earliest leaders were distinguished
men, and that from them have sprung many who were distinguished for
qualities that we admire.

  The good birth of an individual, which may come either from the male
or the female side, implies that both parents are free citizens, and
that, as in the case of the state, the founders of the line have
been notable for virtue or wealth or something else which is highly
prized, and that many distinguished persons belong to the family,
men and women, young and old.

  The phrases 'possession of good children' and 'of many children'
bear a quite clear meaning. Applied to a community, they mean that its
young men are numerous and of good a quality: good in regard to bodily
excellences, such as stature, beauty, strength, athletic powers; and
also in regard to the excellences of the soul, which in a young man
are temperance and courage. Applied to an individual, they mean that
his own children are numerous and have the good qualities we have
described. Both male and female are here included; the excellences
of the latter are, in body, beauty and stature; in soul,
self-command and an industry that is not sordid. Communities as well
as individuals should lack none of these perfections, in their women
as well as in their men. Where, as among the Lacedaemonians, the state
of women is bad, almost half of human life is spoilt.

  The constituents of wealth are: plenty of coined money and
territory; the ownership of numerous, large, and beautiful estates;
also the ownership of numerous and beautiful implements, live stock,