Pagina 163 di 734

But there is perhaps no reason why not such men should make the

best soldiers, but those who are less truly Brave but have no

other good to care for: these being ready to meet danger and

bartering their lives against small gain.

Let thus much be accepted as sufficient on the subject of

Courage; the true nature of which it is not difficult to gather,

in outline at least, from what has been said.

Chapter XIII.

Next let us speak of Perfected Self-Mastery, which seems to claim

the next place to Courage, since these two are the Excellences of

the Irrational part of the Soul.

That it is a mean state, having for its object-matter Pleasures,

we have already said (Pains being in fact its object-matter in a

less degree and dissimilar manner), the state of utter absence of

self-control has plainly the same object-matter; the next thing

then is to determine what kind of Pleasures.