Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/465

410 are laid down as their extremes than towards the other; and therefore the statement is not perfectly accurate which represents each virtue as a mid-point between two extremes, if we mean by a mid-point a point exactly in the middle. For courage certainly inclines more towards rashness than it does towards cowardice; generosity inclines more towards profusion than towards stinginess; and so I believe in regard to every virtue that could be named; the one extreme always lies at a greater distance than the other from the virtue which is placed between them. But, no doubt, for practical purposes, it is a very true account of the virtues to represent them as occupying a middle place between two extremes, the extreme of excess and the extreme of deficiency. From this account of the virtues, you may perceive that Aristotle, like Adam Smith, makes their general characteristic to be propriety, i.e., a state in which they are not pushed to the extreme, either of extravagant excess or of still more reprehensible deficiency. In the same way Plato places the essence of virtue in propriety, i.e., in the equilibrium of the soul, which was described in preceding lectures.

49. This doctrine is of a much earlier date than the days of Aristotle. Indeed, it would seem to require no very advanced state of philosophy for men to discover the maxim that "moderation is best," that "excess is to be avoided." Thus, so far