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first in domestic sway, is unable, in the manage- 

 ment of his family, to take the lead. 



This being the case, it happens that not only 

 families, but cities, become miserable. For families 

 are parts of cities, but the composition of the whole 

 and the universe derives its subsistence from parts*. 

 It is reasonable, therefore, to admit, that such as 

 are the parts, such likewise will be the whole and 

 the all which consists of things of this kind. 



And as in fabrics of a primary nature the first 

 structures co-operate greatly to the good or bad 

 completion of the whole work; as, for instance, 

 the manner in which the foundation is laid in, 

 building a house, the structure of the keel in build- 

 ing a ship, and in musical modulation the exten- 

 sion and remission of the voice ; so the concordant 

 condition of families greatly contributes to the 

 well or ill establishment of a polity. 



Those, therefore, who direct their attention to 

 the propagation of the human species, ought to 

 guard against everything which is dissimilar and 



* For whole, according to the philosophy of Pythagoras and 

 Plato, has a triple subsistence ; since it is either prior to parts, or 

 consists of parts, or exists in each of the parts of a thing. But a 

 whole, prior to parts, contains in itself parts causally. The universe 

 is a whole of wholes, the wholes which it comprehends in itself 

 (viz. the inerratic sphere, and the spheres of the planets and ele- 

 ments) being its parts. And in the whole which is in each part of a 

 thing, every part according to participation becomes a whole, i. e. 

 a partial whole. 



