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Or again, it is conceivable on this supposition that folly joined

with Imperfect Self-Control may turn out, in a given case,

goodness: for by reason of his imperfection of self-control a man

acts in a way which contradicts his notions; now his notion is

that what is really good is bad and ought not to be done; and so

he will eventually do what is good and not what is bad.

Again, on the same supposition, the man who acting on conviction

pursues and chooses things because they are pleasant must be

thought a better man than he who does so not by reason of a

quasi-rational conviction but of Imperfect Self-Control: because

he is more open to cure by reason of the possibility of his

receiving a contrary conviction. But to the man of Imperfect

Self-Control would apply the proverb, "when water chokes, what

should a man drink then?" for had he never been convinced at all

in respect of what he does,[3] then by a conviction in a contrary

direction he might have stopped in his course; but now though he

has had convictions he notwithstanding acts against them.