Sayfa 674 / 734

[7] Virtue consists in the due regulation of all the parts of our

nature our passions are a real part of that nature, and as such

have their proper office, it is an error then to aim at their

extirpation. It is true that in a perfect moral state emotion

will be rare, but then this will have been gained by regular

process, being the legitimate result of the law that "passive

impressions weaken as active habits are strengthened, by

repetition." If musical instruments are making discord, I may

silence or I may bring them into harmony in either case I get rid

of discord, but in the latter I have the positive enjoyment of

music. The Stoics would have the passions rooted out, Aristotle

would have them cultivated to use an apt figure (whose I know

not), They would pluck the blossom off at once, he would leave it

to fall in due course when the fruit was formed. Of them we might

truly say, Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. See on this

point Bishop Butler's fifth Sermon, and sect. 11.