Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/70

50 (c) sagacity and intellectual cleverness, which is the ability to perceive quickly, and to grasp an idea without delay, or in a very short time. The vices of this faculty are the antitheses or the opposites of these virtues.

Moral virtues belong only to the appetitive faculty to which that of sensation in this connection is merely subservient. The virtues of this faculty are very numerous, being moderation, [i.e. fear of sin], liberality, honesty, meekness, humility, contentedness, [which the Rabbis call “wealth”, when they say, “Who is truly wealthy? He who is contented with his lot” ], courage, [faith-fulness], and other virtues akin to these. The vices of this faculty consist of a deficiency or of an exaggeration of these qualities.

As regards the faculties of nutrition and imagination, it cannot be said that they have vices or virtues, but that the nutritive functions work properly or improperly; as, for instance, when one says that a man's digestion is good or bad, or that one's imagination is confused or clear. This does not mean, however, that they have virtues or vices.

So much we wished to discuss in this chapter.