The ethics of Aristotle: by Aristotle & Chase Drummond Percy 1820-1902

Author:Aristotle & Chase, Drummond Percy, 1820-1902, [from old catalog] tr & Lewes, George Henry, 1817-1878
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: London, W. Scott, ltd
Published: 1890-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

forms of ^^^^ ^y ^ sudden access of temptation, than they who Imperfect have Reason but do not abide by it; these last being Self-Con- overcome by passion less in degree, and not wholly trolcom- without premeditation as are the others: for the P?edpitate °^^° ^^ Imperfect Self-Control is like those who are preferred, ^oon intoxicated and by little wine and less than the

common run of men. Further Well then, that Imperfection of Self-Control is

notes upon not Confirmed Viciousuess is plain: and yet perhaps the Cha- j^ jg |jj j^ y^^^y^ because in one sense it is contrary to Imperfect ™^'^^ choice, and in another the result of if*: at all Self-Control. ^ " I^ ^6 ^^^^ iiito a hospital where all were sick or dying, we should think those least ill who were insensible to pain, a physician who knew the whole, would behold them wi^ despair. And there is a mortification of the soul as well as of the body, in which the first symptoms of returning hope are pain and anguish." Sewell, Sermons to Young Men, (Serm. xii.)

1 Before the time of trial comes, the man deliberately makes his Moral Choice to act rightly; but at the moment of acting, the powerful strain of desire makes him contravene this choice: his Will does not act in accordance

events, in respect of the actions^ the case is much like what Demodocus said of the Miletians. '* The people of Miletus are not fools, but they do just the kind of things that fools do;'* and so they of Imperfect Self-Control are not unjust, but they do unjust acts.

But to resume. Since the man of Imperfect Self-Control is of such a character as to follow bodily pleasures in excess and in defiance of Right Reason, without acting on any deliberate conviction, whereas The man the man utterly destitute of Self-Control does act destitute upon a conviction which rests on his natural in- ^ ^^- . clination to follow after these pleasures; the formerj^Qp^j^gg^* may be easily persuaded to a difierent course, but because he the latter not: for Virtue and Vice respectively pre- acts on a serve and corrupt the moral principle; now the settled motive is the principle or starting point in moral ^^''^^^^ actions, just as axioms and postulates are in mathematics: and neither in morals nor mathematics is it Reason which is apt to teach the principles; but Excellence, either natural, or acquired by custom, in holding right notions with respect to the principle. He who does this in morals is the mau of Perfected SellT-Mastery, and the contrary character is the man utterly destitute of Self-Control.

Again, there is a character liable to be taken off Another

his feet in defiance of Right Reason because ofdescription

passion; whom passion so far masters as to prevent °J *^® J^° t* .. '^•1 •in*iTk 1 characters,

his actmg m accordance with Right Reason, but not

so far as to make him be convinced that it is his proper line to follow after such

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