With respect also to practical and rational domination, one kind is
despotic, another is of a guardian nature, and another is political.
And the despotic, indeed, is that which governs with a view to the
advantage of the governor, and not of the governed. For after
this manner a master rules over his slaves, and a tyrant over his
subjects. But the guardian domination subsists for the sake of the
governed, and not for the sake of those that govern. And with this
kind of power the anointers rule over the athletæ, physicians over
the sick, and preceptors over their pupils. For their labours are not
directed to their own advantage, but to the benefit of those whom
they govern; those of the physician being undertaken for the sake
of the sick, the anointers for the sake of exercising the body, and
those of the erudite for the sake of the inerudite. But the political
domination has for its end the common benefit both of the governors
and the governed. For according to this domination, in human affairs,
both a family and a city are coharmonized; but in things of a divine
nature the world is aptly composed. A family, however, and a city are
an imitation according to analogy of the government of the world. For
divinity is the principle of nature, and his attention is neither
directed to his own advantage, nor to private, but to public good.
And on this account, the world is called κοσμος, from the orderly
disposition of all things which are coarranged with reference to one
thing which is most excellent, and this is God, who is, according
to conception, an intellectual[27] animal, incorruptible, and the
principle and cause of the orderly disposition of wholes. Since,
therefore, the husband rules over the wife, he either rules with a
despotic, or with a guardian, or, in the last place, with a political
power. But he does not rule over her with a despotic power: for he
is diligently attentive to her welfare. Nor is his government of
her entirely of a guardian nature: for this is itself a part of the
communion [between man and wife]. It remains, therefore, that he
rules over her with a political power, according to which both the
governor and the thing governed establish [as their end] the common
advantage. Hence, also, wedlock is established with a view to the
communion of life. Those husbands, therefore, that govern their wives
despotically, are hated by them; but those that govern them with a
guardian authority are despised by them. For they appear to be, as
it were, appendages and flatterers of their wives. But those that
govern them politically are both admired and beloved. And both these
will be effected, if he who governs exercises his power so that it
may be mingled with pleasure and veneration; pleasure indeed being
produced by his fondness, but veneration from his doing nothing of a
vile or abject nature.