Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/783

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 767

his architectural plan induces him to neglect the constantly vary- ing aspect of societies, their continuous and spontaneous trans- formation which always takes place independently even of the more or less rational and methodical intervention of man. And then the city is an isolated mass, its equilibrium being confined within itself.

At the very moment when the situation in Greece is changed by the formation of larger groups, Aristotle shows clearly 2 the correlation between the structure of the state and the division and boundaries of property. Since the frontiers of the state form a part of its structure, and even constitute, as we have seen, its fundamental and primordial feature, the conclusion implied in his observation is that the structure of the frontier of each society is also related to its interior system of property and, in a more general way, to its economic organization.

According to Aristotle, the public estates belong by right to those who bear arms and possess political rights. Thus he unites in his formula the military, political, and proprietary trinity; in these three forms, which are only one, consists sovereignty. The peasantry must form a distinct class. He rejects the community of property, which no longer agrees with the conditions of civiliza- tion of the enlarged city. He adds, however, that the kindness of the citizens ought to make its usage common. Thus it is probably a question of the transformation of the primitive communality, and not of its absolute suppression. A new social state needs new institutions which assure its cohesion, its co-ordination. The territory must be divided into two parts, one to be reserved for the public, and the other for private individuals. Each part will be subdivided into two other parts, of which the first is destined to provide for the expenses of cult and for those of common feasts ; as to the latter, the poor can only with difficulty contribute the amount prescribed by law, and at the same time provide for all the wants of their families. The second part ought to be divided among all the citizens, for the reason that everyone who possesses property both at the frontier and in the environs of the city is equally interested in the defense of both inner and outer regions.

'Politics, Book IV, chap. 9, 6.