Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/407

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352
GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

the artisans, or, as they are nowadays termed, the Operatives; secondly, the military or auxiliary order; and, thirdly, the legislative order. In regard to the first of these classes, their object is gain; they minister to wants and enjoyments of themselves and the community generally; this, the working order, may also be termed the quæstuary class, from quæstus, the Latin for gain, or the chrematistic class, from χρήματα, the Greek for money or wealth, this being the end which they aim at. In regard to the second of these classes, the military order, this is superior to the artisans. It exists for the purpose of preserving internal tranquillity and of repelling foreign aggression. It is called the auxiliary class, because its principal function is to aid the legislative order in repressing all such insubordination on the part of the working class as would imperil the existence, or compromise the safety, of the state. Then in regard to the legislative order, its business is to govern the other classes; and it consists of those members of the community who, by their wisdom and probity, are the best qualified to discharge that office. When each of these orders fulfils its proper function, and when none of them attempts to usurp or encroach on the province of the others—when neither the artisans nor the military strive to displace the governing or legislative power, and when the legislative power does not succumb to either of these—the state is duly organised, its true constitution is preserved. It is, in fact, a state; and it possesses and presents the