Strona 394 z 734

And their saying what embodies Knowledge is no proof of their

actually then exercising it, because they who are under the

operation of these passions repeat demonstrations; or verses of

Empedocles,[6] just as children, when first learning, string

words together, but as yet know nothing of their meaning, because

they must grow into it, and this is a process requiring time: so

that we must suppose these men who fail in Self-Control to say

these moral sayings just as actors do.

Furthermore, a man may look at the account of the phaenomenon in

the following way, from an examination of the actual working of

the mind: All action may be analysed into a syllogism, in which

the one premiss is an universal maxim and the other concerns

particulars of which Sense [moral or physical, as the case may

be] is cognisant: now when one results from these two, it follows

necessarily that, as far as theory goes the mind must assert the

conclusion, and in practical propositions the man must act

accordingly.