It is so also for the following reason; that it is easier to be inured
by habit to resist the objects of pleasure, there being many things of
this kind in life and the process of habituation being unaccompanied by
danger; whereas the case is the reverse as regards the objects of fear.
Again, Cowardice as a confirmed habit would seem to be voluntary in a
different way from the particular instances which form the habit;
because it is painless, but these derange the man by reason of pain so
that he throws away his arms and otherwise behaves himself unseemly,
for which reason they are even thought by some to exercise a power of
compulsion.
But to the man destitute of Self-Control the particular instances are
on the contrary quite voluntary, being done with desire and direct
exertion of the will, but the general result is less voluntary: since
no man desires to form the habit.
The name of this vice (which signifies etymologically unchastened-ness)
we apply also to the faults of children, there being a certain
resemblance between the cases: to which the name is primarily applied,
and to which secondarily or derivatively, is not relevant to the
present subject, but it is evident that the later in point of time must
get the name from the earlier. And the metaphor seems to be a very good
one; for whatever grasps after base things, and is liable to great
increase, ought to be chastened; and to this description desire and the
child answer most truly, in that children also live under the direction
of desire and the grasping after what is pleasant is most prominently
seen in these.
Unless then the appetite be obedient and subjected to the governing
principle it will become very great: for in the fool the grasping after
what is pleasant is insatiable and undiscriminating; and every acting
out of the desire increases the kindred habit, and if the desires are
great and violent in degree they even expel Reason entirely; therefore
they ought to be moderate and few, and in no respect to be opposed to
Reason. Now when the appetite is in such a state we denominate it
obedient and chastened.
In short, as the child ought to live with constant regard to the orders
of its educator, so should the appetitive principle with regard to
those of Reason.
So then in the man of Perfected Self-Mastery, the appetitive principle
must be accordant with Reason: for what is right is the mark at which
both principles aim: that is to say, the man of perfected self-mastery
desires what he ought in right manner and at right times, which is
exactly what Reason directs. Let this be taken for our account of
Perfected Self-Mastery.
BOOK IV
Chapter I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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