All communities are always governed in one of three ways: either by one man, or by a few men, or by many men, and the Greeks tried all these ways, until they found the one that answered best to their ideals of what a city-state should be. All states did not {72} develop in the same way, but one stands out from the others as having most nearly reached the Greek ideal. That state was Athens. Her story shall be told in its own place; in this chapter we will see what the Greeks thought an ideal state should be, and what they believed to be the duties of a good citizen. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote a book in which these ideals were set forth.[1] He believed that the end for which the State existed was that all its citizens could lead what he called a "good life," and by that he meant the life which best gives opportunities for man to develop his highest instincts, and which makes it possible for every citizen to develop his own gifts whatever they may be, in the highest and truest way. To realize such a life there must be law and order in a state, and Aristotle considered that the first thing necessary to ensure this was that the state must not be too large. He believed that the greatness of a state was not determined by the size of its territory or the number of its population, but that though a certain size and certain numbers helped to make a state dignified and noble, unless these were combined with good law and order, the state was not great. States, he said, were like animals and plants or things made by human art which, if they are too large, lose their true nature and are spoilt for use. But how is one to know when the limit in size and population has been reached? Is there any test by which it can be discovered whether a state has grown or is in danger of growing too large? {73} Aristotle answered this question by saying that the state must be large enough to include opportunities for all the variety and richness of what he called the "good life," but not so large that the citizens could not see it or think of it in their minds as one whole of which they knew all the parts. He also thought it necessary that the character of all citizens should be well-known, an impossibility in too large a community, but how else, he asked, could men elect their magistrates wisely?