The reward of virtue will vary according to the duty done and the object
toward which it is directed. The virtues which deal with mere things
will bring as their rewards material prosperity. The virtues which deal
with ideal objects will have their reward in increased capacities,
intensified sensibilities, and elevated tastes. The virtues which deal
with our fellow-men will be rewarded by enlargement of social sympathy,
and deeper tenderness of feeling. The virtues which are directed toward
family, state, and society, have their reward in that exalted sense of
participation in great and glorious aims, which lift one up above the
limitations of his private self, and can make even death sweet and
beautiful--a glad and willing offering to that larger social self of
which it is the individual's highest privilege to count himself a worthy
and honorable member.
Life, however, is not this steady march to victory, with beating drums
and flying banners, which, for the sake of continuity in description, we
have thus far regarded it. There are hard battles to fight; and mighty
foes to conquer. We must now return to those other possible relations
which we left when we selected for immediate consideration that one
right relation which we call duty.
Since there is only one right relation between self and an object, all
others must be wrong. These other possible relations are temptations.
Temptation is the appeal of an object to a single side of our nature as
against the well-being of self as a whole. Each object gives rise to
many temptations. "Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction."
Just as duty performed gives rise to virtue, so temptation, yielded to,
begets vice. Vice is the habitual yielding to temptation.
Temptations fall into two classes. Either we are tempted to neglect an
object, and so to give it too little influence over us; or else we are
tempted to be carried away by an object, and to give it an excessive and
disproportionate place in our life. Hence the resulting vices fall into
two classes. Vices resulting from the former sort of temptation are
vices of defect. Vices resulting from the latter form of temptation are
vices of excess. As one of these temptations is usually much stronger
than the other, we will discuss simply the strongest and most
characteristic temptation in connection with each object. Yet as both
classes of vice exist with reference to every object, it will be best to
consider both.
Vice carries its penalty in its own nature. Being a perversion of some
object, it renders impossible that realization of ourselves through the
object, or in the higher relations, that realization of the object
through us, on which the harmony and completeness of our life depends.
In the words of Plato: "Virtue is the health and beauty and well-being
of the soul, and vice is the disease and weakness and deformity of the
soul."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account