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Imperfection of Self-Control and Self-Control, after all, are

above the average state of men; because he of the latter

character is more true to his Reason, and the former less so,

than is in the power of most men.

Again, of the two forms of Imperfect Self-Control that is more

easily cured which they have who are constitutionally of strong

passions, than that of those who form resolutions and break them;

and they that are so through habituation than they that are so

naturally; since of course custom is easier to change than

nature, because the very resemblance of custom to nature is what

constitutes the difficulty of changing it; as Evenus says,

"Practice, I say, my friend, doth long endure, And at the last is

even very nature."

We have now said then what Self-Control is, what Imperfection of

Self-Control, what Endurance, and what Softness, and how these

states are mutually related.

APPENDIX. Book VII. Chapters 12 to 15. (Bekker.)