Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/466

Rh back as Hesiod, we find the praise of , moderate acts. The era of the seven sages produced the saying, afterwards inscribed on the temple of Delphi, , nothing in excess. Now, all that is contained in these popular and prudential sayings is of course also contained in the principle of , or the mean which is so conspicuous in the ethics of Aristotle. But Aristotle's principle contains something deeper than this; it is not a mere application of the doctrine of moderation to the subject-matter of the various separate virtues. It takes us back to the Pythagorean ethics, one of the principles of which was, that evil was of the nature of the infinite (the unlimited, the immoderate), that good was of the nature of the finite (the bounded, the moderate). To say that the infinite is evil, and that the finite is good, may seem an entire contradiction to our modern ways of thinking. It is a mode of speech and of thought which may nevertheless be justified. The Pythagoreans held that number or limit was the origin of all intelligibility, of all order; and that whatever was infinite or unlimited () or incalculable, was unintelligible, chaotic, or, as we should say, nonsensical. Limit, , therefore, or that which made things finite, or gave them order, this it was which also made them good, just as the want of limit was that which left them in a state of disorder, and, consequently, in a condition of evil. Limit, in fact, was considered as identical with form or law, and the finite or limited was that which was