Strona 563 z 1391

Still, through this fallacious medium, a real enlargement of

ideas is attained. When the virtues as yet presented no distinct

conception to the mind, a great advance was made by the

comparison of them with the arts; for virtue is partly art, and

has an outward form as well as an inward principle. The harmony

of music affords a lively image of the harmonies of the world and

of human life, and may be regarded as a splendid illustration

which was naturally mistaken for a real analogy. In the same way

the identification of ethics with politics has a tendency to give

definiteness to ethics, and also to elevate and ennoble men's

notions of the aims of government and of the duties of citizens;

for ethics from one point of view may be conceived as an

idealized law and politics; and politics, as ethics reduced to

the conditions of human society.