صفحة 560 من 734

Now all approve and commend those who are eminently earnest about

honourable actions, and if all would vie with one another in

respect of the καλὸν, and be intent upon doing what is most truly

noble and honourable, society at large would have all that is

proper while each individual in particular would have the

greatest of goods, Virtue being assumed to be such.

And so the good man ought to be Self-loving: because by doing

what is noble he will have advantage himself and will do good to

others: but the bad man ought not to be, because he will harm

himself and his neighbours by following low and evil passions. In

the case of the bad man, what he ought to do and what he does are

at variance, but the good man does what he ought to do, because

all Intellect chooses what is best for itself and the good man

puts himself under the direction of Intellect.