or whatsoever is employed on one subject only,
brings that one to much greater perfection than when employed on many;
and yet among the barbarians, a female and a slave are upon a level in
the community, the reason for which is, that amongst them there are none
qualified by nature to govern, therefore their society can be nothing
but between slaves of different sexes. For which reason the poets say,
it is proper for the Greeks to govern the barbarians, as if a barbarian
and a slave were by nature one. Now of these two societies the domestic
is the first, and Hesiod is right when he says, "First a house, then
a wife, then an ox for the plough," for the poor man has always an ox
before a household slave. That society then which nature has established
for daily support is the domestic, and those who compose it are called
by Charondas _homosipuoi_, and by Epimenides the Cretan _homokapnoi_;
but the society of many families, which was first instituted for their
lasting, mutual advantage, is called a village, and a village is most
naturally composed of the descendants of one family, whom some persons
call homogalaktes, the children and the children's children thereof: for
which reason cities were originally governed by kings, as the barbarian
states now are, which are composed of those who had before submitted to
kingly government; for every family is governed by the elder, as are the
branches thereof, on account of their relationship thereunto, which
is what Homer says, "Each one ruled his wife and child;" and in this
scattered manner they formerly lived. And the opinion which universally
prevails, that the gods themselves are subject to kingly government,
arises from hence, that all men formerly were, and many are so now; and
as they imagined themselves to be made in the likeness of the gods, so
they supposed their manner of life must needs be the same. And when many
villages so entirely join themselves together as in every respect to
form but one society, that society is a city, and contains in itself, if
I may so speak, the end and perfection of government: first founded that
we might live, but continued that we may live happily. For which reason
every city must be allowed to be the work of nature, if we admit that
the original society between male and female is; for to this as their
end all subordinate societies tend, and the end of everything is the
nature of it. For what every being is in its most perfect state, that
cer