[7] Virtue consists in the due regulation of _all_ the parts of our nature our passions are a real part of that nature, and as such have their proper office, it is an error then to aim at their extirpation. It is true that in a perfect moral state emotion will be rare, but then this will have been gained by regular process, being the legitimate result of the law that “passive impressions weaken as active habits are strengthened, by repetition.” If musical instruments are making discord, I may silence or I may bring them into harmony in either case I get rid of discord, but in the latter I have the positive enjoyment of music. The Stoics would have the passions rooted out, Aristotle would have them cultivated to use an apt figure (whose I know not), They would pluck the blossom off at once, he would leave it to fall in due course when the fruit was formed. Of them we might truly say, _Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant_. See on this point Bishop Butler’s fifth Sermon, and sect. 11. of the chapter on Moral Discipline in the first part of his Analogy. [8] I have adopted this word from our old writers, because our word _act_ is so commonly interchanged with _action_. [Greek: Praxis] (action) properly denotes the whole process from the conception to the performance. [Greek: Pragma] (fact) only the result. The latter may be right when the former is wrong if, for example, a murderer was killed by his accomplices. Again, the [Greek: praxis] may be _good_ though the [Greek: pragma] be wrong, as if a man under erroneous impressions does what would have been right if his impressions had been true (subject of course to the question how far he is guiltless of his original error), but in this case we could not call the [Greek: praxis] _right_. No repetition of [Greek: pragmata] goes to form a habit. See Bishop Butler on the Theory of Habits m the chapter on Moral Discipline, quoted above, sect. 11. “And in like manner as habits belonging to the body,” etc. [9] Being about to give a strict logical definition of Virtue, Aristotle ascertains first what is its genus [Greek: ti estin]. [10] That is, not for _merely having_ them, because we did not make ourselves. See Bishop Butler’s account of our nature as containing “particular propensions,” in sect. iv. of the chapter on Moral discipline, and in the Preface to the Sermons. [11] This refers to the division of quantity ([Greek: poson]) in the Categories. Those Quantities are called by Aristotle Continuous whose parts have position relatively to one another, as a line, surface, or solid, those discrete, whose parts have no such relation, as numbers themselves, or any string of words grammatically unconnected. [12] Numbers are in arithmetical proportion (more usually called progression), when they increase or decrease by a common difference thus, 2, 6, 10 are so, because 2 + 4 = 6, 6 + 4= 10, or _vice versa_, 10 - 4 = 6, 6 - 4 = 2.