nceive the good rightly they are united. The
state represents their common agreement, force their failure to make
that agreement complete. The cure, therefore, of political ills is
knowledge of the good life, and the statesman is he who has such
knowledge, for that alone can give men what they are always seeking.

If the state is the organisation of men seeking a common good, power and
political position must be given to those who can forward this end. This
is the principle expressed in Aristotle's account of political justice,
the principle of "tools to those who can use them." As the aim of the
state is differently conceived, the qualifications for government
will vary. In the ideal state power will be given to the man with most
knowledge of the good; in other states to the men who are most truly
capable of achieving that end which the citizens have set themselves
to pursue. The justest distribution of political power is that in which
there is least waste of political ability.

Further, the belief that the constitution of a state is only the
outward expression of the common aspirations and beliefs of its members,
explains the paramount political importance which Aristotle assigns to
education. It is the great instrument by which the legislator can ensure
that the future citizens of his state will share those common beliefs
which make the state possible. The Greeks with their small states had
a far clearer apprehension than we can have of the dependence of a
constitution upon the people who have to work it.

Such is in brief the attitude in which Aristotle approaches political
problems, but in working out its application to men and institutions
as they are, Aristotle admits certain compromises which are not really
consistent with it.

1. Aristotle thinks of membership of a state as community in pursuit of
the good. He wishes to confine membership in it to those who are capable
of that pursuit in the highest and most explicit manner. His citizens,
therefore, must be men of leisure, capable of rational thought upon
the end of life. He does not recognise the significance of that less
conscious but deep-seated membership of the state which finds its
expression in loyalty and patriotism. His definition of citizen includes
only a small part of the population of any Greek city. He is forced to
admit that the state is not possible without the co-operation of men
whom he will not admit to membership in it, either because the