They thought it necessary to impose a limit on the number of children in every family, binding equally on rich and poor: the number prescribed might be varied from time to time, as circumstances indicated. As the community could not safely admit more than a certain aggregate of births, these philosophers commanded all couples indiscriminately, the rich not excepted, to shape their conduct with a view to that imperative necessity. [Footnote 162: Aristotel. Politic. vii. 16.] [Footnote 163: Compare the view (not unlike though founded on different reasons) of the stationary state taken by Mr. John Stuart Mill, in a valuable chapter of his Principles of Political Economy, Book iv. chap. 6. He says (s. 2):--"The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back by the efforts of others to push themselves forward". This would come near to the views of Plato and Aristotle.] [Footnote 164: See a striking passage in Plato, Legg. v. pp. 742-743. He speaks of rich men as they are spoken of in some verses of the Gospels--a very rich man can hardly be a good man. Wealth and poverty are both of them evils, p. 744 D. Repub. iv. p. 421. Pheidon the Corinthian, an ancient lawgiver (we do not know when or where), prescribed an unchangeable number both of lots (of land) and of citizens, but the lots were not to be all equal. Aristotel. Politic. ii. 6, p. 1265, b. 14.] [Footnote 165: Aristot. Politic. ii. 6, p. 1265, b. 10. [Greek: To\ d' a)phei=sthai (tê\n teknopoii+/an a)o/riston**), katha/per e)n tai=s plei/stais po/lesin, peni/as a)nagkai=on ai)/tion gi/nesthai toi=s poli/tais; ê( de\ peni/a sta/sin e)mpoiei= kai\ kakourgi/an.] Compare ibid. ii. 7, p. 1266, b. 8.] [Footnote 166: Aristotel. Politic. vii. 16, p. 1335, b. 28-38. [Greek: leitourgei=n pro\s teknopoii+/an . . . a)phei=sthai dei= tê=s ei)s to\ phanero\n gennê/seôs.] Plato, Republic, v. pp. 460-461. [Greek: ti/ktein tê=| po/lei--genna=|n tê=| po/lei--tô=n ei)s to\ koino\n gennê/seôn].]