Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/452

Rh virtue as he has an original capacity of seeing; but although we cannot say that man has a natural or original capacity for virtue, we may nevertheless say that he has an original capacity of acquiring that capacity, just as he has an original capacity of acquiring a capacity of painting. Let me illustrate this.

37. Sir Joshua Reynolds has a capacity of painting. Is that an original capacity? No; all that he had originally was a capacity of acquiring that capacity. His capacity of painting he acquired by long study and repeated efforts; but no doubt he had an original capacity which enabled him to make these efforts. Now, this original capacity is, in Aristotle's language, a , a natural power; the acquired capacity, the capacity of painting resulting from these repeated efforts, this, in Aristotle's language, is a  or confirmed habit; and it is in virtue of this, and not in virtue of the original power, that Sir Joshua is entitled to the name of a painter. So, in regard to virtue, all men have by nature the capacity of acquiring the capacity of virtue. But all men do not acquire this capacity. Those only acquire it who persevere in the practice of virtue, just as those only acquire the capacity of painting who labour assiduously with the brush and the pallet There is in man a natural power, or capacity, or , which enables him to perform those actions by which the capacity of virtue is gradually acquired; but this