Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/409

354 of a civil community. By nature the concupiscible is designed to obey the rational, just as in the state the working classes are designed to obey the legislative power; and the irascible is created to assist the rational, just as the military exist to aid and support the legislative. Thus, as there are three orders in the state, so are there three faculties in the soul, each answering to each—the concupiscible to the working order, the irascible to the military, and the rational to the legislative. The virtue of the concupiscible is temperance; in other words, the submission of the concupiscible to the rational is the virtue of temperance. The virtue of the irascible is fortitude; the virtue of the rational is wisdom or prudence. When consent and harmony prevail among the three, then that complete virtue which Plato calls justice arises. And this virtue is higher than either temperance taken by itself, or than fortitude taken by itself, or than wisdom taken by itself, for it is the complement of the whole three, and is the result of the harmonious and properly balanced operation of the three faculties of the soul. Just as justice pervades the state, and the wellbeing of the community is the result when each order keeps its own place, and executes its appointed function, so justice pervades the soul, and health and strength of mind are the result when each of the faculties preserves the relation towards the other faculties in which nature placed it, and in which nature intended it to stand. When this relation is preserved, the outward life and