Kitap 1
3
And besides all this, agriculture contributes notably to the making of a manly character; because, unlike the mechanical arts, it does not cripple and weaken the bodies of those engaged in it, but inures them to exposure and toil and invigorates them to face the perils of war. For the farmer’s possessions, unlike those of other men, lie outside the city’s defences.
1
When we turn our attention to the human part of the household, it is the woman who makes the first claim upon it; 〈for the natural comes first, as we have said,〉 and nothing is more natural than the tie between female and male. For we have elsewhere laid down the premissCf. Aristot. Pol. 1.1. that Nature is intent on multiplying severally her types; and this is true of every animal in particular. Neither the female, however, can effect this without the male, nor the male without the female; whence the union of the sexes has of necessity arisen.
2
Now among the lower animals, this union is irrational in character; it exists merely for the purpose of procreation, and lasts only so long as the parents are occupied in producing their brood. In tame animals, on the other hand, and those which possess a greater share of intelligence, it has assumed a more complex form; for in their case we see more examples of mutual help, goodwill, and co-operation.
