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κτήματα ἄκαρπα] note on 5. 7, ἔστι δὲ χρήσιμα μᾶλλον. A pleasuregarden on this principle is a finer thing and more deserving of approbation than a market-garden from which you make a profit. The reason here given for this preference is different to that assigned in Eth. N. IV 9 (quoted in the note referred to). There it is accounted for by the selfsufficiency or independence (αὐτάρκεια) that it implies; here by its being more in accordance with the gentleman's character, in contrast with the vulgarity of trade and money-making.

τὰ παρ᾽ ἑκάστοις ἴδια] These are special pursuits, modes of action, manners, and customs cultivated in particular countries, ‘national’ and ‘peculiar to them’. In England, for instance, special skill in cricket and other athletic exercises gains a man applause; in Greece, running, boxing, wrestling, chariot-racing, are the great games. In Europe a man is applauded for his skill in dancing, which the Chinese utterly contemn, and regard as a useless waste of labour. Quint. Inst. Or. III 7. 24, Minus Lacedaemone studia literarum quam Athenis honoris merebuntur; plus patientia, fortitudo.

ὅσα σημεῖά ἐστι τῶν παρ᾽ ἑκάστοις ἐπαινουμένων] ‘all signs, or distinctive marks, of habits (characters, actions), that are approved in particular countries, as the habit of wearing long hair in Lacedaemon. This is a ‘sign’ of a gentleman, a character very much approved in that country. It is a sign of this, because with long hair it is difficult to perform any menial task1, and therefore the wearing it shews that menial occupations are alien from that character. Gaisford quotes, Xenoph. de Rep. Lac. XI 3, ἐφῆκε δὲ (Lycurgus sc.) καὶ κομᾷν τοῖς ὑπὲρ τὴν ἡβητικὴν ἡλικίαν, νομίζων οὕτω καὶ μείζους ἂν καὶ ἐλευθεριωτέρους καὶ γοργοτέρους φαίνεσθαι. [Aristoph. Aves, 1282, ἐλακωνομάνουν ἅπαντες ἅνθρωποι τότε, ἐκόμων κ.τ.λ. S.]

θητικόν] Θῆτες, θητεύειν, denote hired service in agriculture, but not slavery; the θής is no δουλος. In this sense both words are used by Homer. The θῆτες formed the fourth and lowest class under the Solonian constitution. At Athens, in Aristotle's time, the θῆτες, τὸ θητικὸν (πλῆθος), still denotes the class of paid agricultural labourers, as an order of the state or population; and is expressly distinguished from the βάναυσοι or τεχνῖται, artisans and petty manufacturers, who are still hired labourers, but work at mechanical employments, and in towns, forming with the others the lowest order of the population of the state. In Pol. III 5, βάναυσος and θής are several times thus distinguished. It is there said that in some constitutions (such as monarchies and aristocracies) neither of these classes is admitted into the governing body; in oligarchies the θής cannot, the βάναυσος can, be a citizen. In the account given, VI (IV) 4, 1291 b 14 seq., of the various kinds of population which form the bases of so many different varieties of democracy, we have in line 25 the term χερνητικόν, of precisely the same import, substituted for θητικόν: the other had been already mentioned. In Pol. VII (VI) 4, 1319 a 27, three classes of these lower orders are distinguished, τὸ πλῆθος τό τε τῶν βαναύσων (artisans) καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀγοραίων ἀνθρώπων (small tradesmen or retailers, buyers and sellers in the market, VI (IV) 4, 1291 a 4, λέγω δὲ ἀγοραῖον τὸ περὶ τὰς πράσεις καὶ τὰς ὠνὰς καὶ τὰς ἐμπορίας καὶ καπηλείας διατρῖβον), καὶ τὸ θητικόν. Of all these it is said just before, γὰρ βίος φαῦλος, καὶ οὐθὲν ἔργον μετ᾽ ἀρετῆς. θητικόν metaph. = δουλικόν, ‘servile, menial’, occurs again Eth. Nic. IV 8, 1125 I.

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