Commonwealth

particular well-being by the number of his pleasures and satisfactions. Even 
those who have agreed that the sovereign good of the individual is 
contemplation, have not always agreed that the good of the individual and 
good of the commonwealth are identical, and that to be a good man is also to 
be a good citizen. For this reason there has always been a great variety of 
laws, customs, and policies attendant on the desires and passions of princes 
and governors. Since however the wise man is the measure of justice and of 
truth, and those reputed wise have always agreed that the end of the 
individual and the end of the commonwealth are one, without distinction of 
the good man and the good citizen, we also must conclude that contemplation 
is the end and form of the good to which the government of the commonwealth 
should be directed.
Aristotle was not always consistent in what he had to say on the subject. 
At times he compromised with the views of various people, coupling now 
riches, now power, now health, with virtue, in order to take into account 
commonly received opinions. But in moments of greatest insight he made 
contemplation the height of felicity. It may have been similar 
considerations which prompted Marcus Varro to say that human felicity 
springs from the union of action and contemplation. To my mind this is so, 
because whereas the well-being of a simple organism may be simple in 
character, that of a dual organism, composed of diverse elements, must 
itself be of a dual nature. The w ell-being of the body comes from health, 
strength, vigour, and the beauty of well-proportioned members. The 
well-being of the active principle of the soul, which is the link between 
body and soul, consists in the subordination of appetite to reason, in other 
words, the exercise of the moral virtues. The well-being of the intellective