Still, every one believes that they live, and therefore that they Work
because it is not supposed that they sleep their time away like
Endymion: now if from a living being you take away Action, still more
if Creation, what remains but Contemplation? So then the Working of the
Gods, eminent in blessedness, will be one apt for Contemplative
Speculation; and of all human Workings that will have the greatest
capacity for Happiness which is nearest akin to this.
A corroboration of which position is the fact that the other animals do
not partake of Happiness, being completely shut out from any such
Working.
To the Gods then all their life is blessed; and to men in so far as
there is in it some copy of such Working, but of the other animals none
is happy because it in no way shares in Contemplative Speculation.
Happiness then is co-extensive with this Contemplative Speculation, and
in proportion as people have the act of Contemplation so far have they
also the being happy, not incidentally, but in the way of Contemplative
Speculation because it is in itself precious.
Chapter VII.
So Happiness must be a kind of Contemplative Speculation; but since it
is Man we are speaking of he will need likewise External Prosperity,
because his Nature is not by itself sufficient for Speculation, but
there must be health of body, and nourishment, and tendance of all
kinds.
However, it must not be thought, because without external goods a man
cannot enjoy high Happiness, that therefore he will require many and
great goods in order to be happy: for neither Self-sufficiency, nor
Action, stand in Excess, and it is quite possible to act nobly without
being ruler of sea and land, since even with moderate means a man may
act in accordance with Virtue.
And this may be clearly seen in that men in private stations are
thought to act justly, not merely no less than men in power but even
more: it will be quite enough that just so much should belong to a man
as is necessary, for his life will be happy who works in accordance
with Virtue.
Solon perhaps drew a fair picture of the Happy, when he said that they
are men moderately supplied with external goods, and who have achieved
the most noble deeds, as he thought, and who have lived with perfect
self-mastery: for it is quite possible for men of moderate means to act
as they ought.
Anaxagoras also seems to have conceived of the Happy man not as either
rich or powerful, saying that he should not wonder if he were accounted
a strange man in the judgment of the multitude: for they judge by
outward circumstances of which alone they have any perception.