is, it is necessary to know what sort of government is best fitting
for all cities: for most of those writers who have treated this subject,
however speciously they may handle other parts of it, have failed in
describing the practical parts: for it is not enough to be able to
perceive what is best without it is what can be put in practice. It
should also be simple, and easy for all to attain to. But some seek only
the most subtile forms of government. Others again, choosing [1289a]
rather to treat of what is common, censure those under which they live,
and extol the excellence of a particular state, as the Lacedaemonian,
or some other: but every legislator ought to establish such a form of
government as from the present state and disposition of the people who
are to receive it they will most readily submit to and persuade the
community to partake of: for it is not a business of less trouble to
correct the mistakes of an established government than to form a new
one; as it is as difficult to recover what we have forgot as to learn
anything afresh. He, therefore, who aspires to the character of a
legislator, ought, besides all we have already said, to be able to
correct the mistakes of a government already established, as we have
before mentioned. But this is impossible to be done by him who does
not know how many different forms of government there are: some persons
think that there is only one species both of democracy and oligarchy;
but this is not true: so that every one should be acquainted with the
difference of these governments, how great they are, and whence they
arise; and should have equal knowledge to perceive what laws are best,
and what are most suitable to each particular government: for all
laws are, and ought to be, framed agreeable to the state that is to be
governed by them, and not the state to the laws: for government is a
certain ordering in a state which particularly respects the magistrates
in what manner they shall be regulated, and where the supreme power
shall be placed; and what shall be the final object which each community
shall have in view; but the laws are something different from what
regulates and expresses the form of the constitution-it is their office
to direct the conduct of the magistrate in the execution of his office
and the punishment of offenders. From whence it is evident, that the
founders of laws should attend both to the number and the different
sorts of government; for it is