There are three different ways in which two states may be blended and
joined together; for, in the first place, all those rules may be adopted
which the laws of each of them have ordered; as for instance in the
judicial department, for in an oligarchy the rich are fined if they do
not come to the court as jurymen, but the poor are not paid for their
attendance; but in democracies they are, while the rich are not fined
for their neglect. Now these things, as being common to both, are fit
to be observed in a free [1294b] state which is composed of both. This,
then, is one way in which they may be joined together. In the second
place, a medium may be taken between the different methods which each
state observes; for instance, in a democracy the right to vote in the
public assembly is either confined by no census at all, or limited by a
very small one; in an oligarchy none enjoy it but those whose census is
high: therefore, as these two practices are contrary to each other, a
census between each may be established in such a state. In the third
place, different laws of each community may be adopted; as, for
instance, as it seems correspondent to the nature of a democracy, that
the magistrates should be chosen by lot, but an aristocracy by vote, and
in the one state according to a census, but not in the other: let, then,
an aristocracy and a free state copy something from each of them; let
them follow an oligarchy in choosing their magistrates by vote, but a
democracy in not admitting of any census, and thus blend together the
different customs of the two governments. But the best proof of a happy
mixture of a democracy and an oligarchy is this, when a person may
properly call the same state a democracy and an oligarchy. It is evident
that those who speak of it in this manner are induced to it because both
these governments are there well blended together: and indeed this
is common to all mediums, that the extremes of each side should be
discerned therein, as at Lacedaemon; for many affirm that it is a
democracy from the many particulars in which it follows that form of
government; as for instance, in the first place, in the bringing up of
their children, for the rich and poor are brought up in the same manner;
and their education is such that the children of the poor may partake of
it; and the same rules are observed when they are youths and men, there
is no distinction between a rich person and a poor one; and in their
public tables the same provision is served to all. The rich also wear
only such clothes as the poorest man is able to purchase. Moreover, with
respect to two magistracies of the highest rank, one they have a right
to elect to, the other to fill; namely, the senate and the ephori.
Others consider it as an oligarchy, the principles of which it follows
in many things, as in choosing all their officers by vote, and not by
lot; in there being but a few who have a right to sit in judgment on
capital causes and the like.