The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

institutions, and interests. For all men are
persuaded by considerations of their interest, and their interest
lies in the maintenance of the established order. Further, it rests
with the supreme authority to give authoritative decisions, and
this varies with each form of government; there are as many
different supreme authorities as there are different forms of
government. The forms of government are four-democracy, oligarchy,
aristocracy, monarchy. The supreme right to judge and decide always
rests, therefore, with either a part or the whole of one or other
of these governing powers.
    A Democracy is a form of government under which the citizens
distribute the offices of state among themselves by lot, whereas
under oligarchy there is a property qualification, under
aristocracy one of education. By education I mean that education
which is laid down by the law; for it is those who have been loyal
to the national institutions that hold office under an aristocracy.
These are bound to be looked upon as ‘the best men’, and it is from
this fact that this form of government has derived its name (’the
rule of the best’). Monarchy, as the word implies, is the
constitution a in which one man has authority over all. There are
two forms of monarchy: kingship, which is limited by prescribed
conditions, and ‘tyranny’, which is not limited by anything.
    We must also notice the ends which the various forms of
government pursue, since people choose in practice such actions as
will lead to the realization of their ends. The end of democracy is
freedom; of oligarchy, wealth; of aristocracy, the maintenance of
education and national institutions; of tyranny, the protection of
the tyrant. It is clear, then, that we must distinguish those
particular customs, institutions, and interests which tend to
realize the ideal of each constitution, since men choose their
means with reference to their ends. But rhetorical persuasion is
effected not only by demonstrative but by ethical argument; it
helps a speaker to convince us, if we believe that he has certain
qualities himself, namely, goodness, or goodwill towards us, or
both together. Similarly, we should know the moral qualities
characteristic of each form of government, for the special moral
character of each is bound to provide us with our most effective
means of persuasion in dealing with it. We shall learn the
qualities of governments in the same way as we learn the qualities
of individuals, since they are revealed in their deliberate acts of
choice; and these are determined by the end that inspires them.
    We have now considered the objects, immediate or distant, at
which we are to aim when urging any proposal, and the grounds on
which we are to base our arguments in favour of its utility. We
have also briefly considered the means and methods by which we
shall gain a good knowledge of the moral qualities and institutions
peculiar to the various forms of government-only, however, to the
extent demanded by the present occasion; a detailed account of the
subject has been given in the Politics.
9
    We have now to consider Virtue and Vice, the Noble and the Base,
since these are the objects of praise and blame. In doing so, we
shall at the same time be finding out how to make our hearers take
the required view of our own characters-our second method of
persuasion. The ways in which to make them trust the goodness of
other people are also the ways in which to make them trust our own.
Praise, again, may be serious or frivolous; nor is it always of a
human or divine being but often of inanimate things, or of the
humblest of the lower animals. Here too we must know on what
grounds to argue, and must, therefore, now discuss the subject,
though by way of illustration only.
    The Noble is that which is both desirable for its own sake and
also worthy of praise; or that which is both good and also pleasant
because good. If this is a true definition of the Noble, it follows
that virtue must be noble, since it is both a good thing and also
praiseworthy. Virtue is, according to the usual view, a faculty of
providing and preserving good things; or a faculty of conferring
many great benefits, and benefits of all kinds on all occasions.
The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence,
magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom. If virtue is
a faculty of beneficence, the highest kinds of it must be those
which are most useful to others, and for this reason men