This lecture examines the final two books, VII and VIII, of Aristotle’s Politics. Both are devoted exclusively to a discussion of the simply best regime or the regime in accord with what “one would pray for,” a concept that has guided Aristotle’s political science from the very beginning but becomes its focus only now. Our discussion will closely follow Aristotle’s own: first, an inquiry into the good life that must be the goal of the best regime; second, a look at the “stuff,” or the material, out of which the best regime will be formed; third, the nature of the regime itself or the form that “stuff” must take; and finally, the crucial topic of education in the best regime, the subject of all of Book VIII.