intellectual force, in whom the ideas of virtue and vice had been as much developed by reflection as they ever have been in any mind: lastly, men who are extolled by the commentators as the champions of religion and sound morality, against what are styled the unprincipled cavils of the Sophists. [Footnote 175: Aristotel. Politic. viii. 2, p. 1337, b. 2. [Greek: Peri/ te tô=n pro\s a)retê/n, ou)the/n e)stin o(mologou/menon; kai\ ga\r tê\n a)retê\n ou) tê\n au)tê\n eu)thu\s pa/ntes timô=sin; ô(/st' eu)lo/gôs diaphe/rontai kai\ pro\s tê\n a)/skêsin au)tê=s.] Ethica Nikomach. i. 3, p. 1094, b. 15. [Greek: Ta\ de\ kala\ kai\ ta\ di/kaia, peri\ ô(=n ê( politikê\ skopei=tai, tosau/tên e)/chei diaphora\n kai\ pla/nên, ô(/ste dokei=n no/mô| mo/non ei)=nai, phu/sei de\ mê/.]] [Footnote 176: The extraordinary variety and discrepancy of approved and consecrated customs prevalent in different portions of the ancient world, is instructively set forth in the treatise of the Syrian Christian Bardisanes, in the time of the Antonines. A long extract from this treatise is given in Eusebius, Præparat. Evang., vi. 10; it has been also published by Orelli, annexed to his edition (Zurich, 1824) of the argument of Alexander of Aphrodisias, De Fato, p. 202. Compare Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 30. Bardisanes is replying to the arguments of astrologers and calculators of nativities, who asserted the uniform and uncontrollable influence of the heavenly bodies, in given positions, over human conduct. As a proof that mankind are not subject to any such necessity, but have a large sphere of freewill ([Greek: au)texou/sion]), he cites these numerous instances of diverse and contradictory institutions among different societies. Several of the most conspicuous among these differences relate to the institutions concerning sex and family, the conduct and occupations held obligatory in men and women, &c. Compare Sextus Empiric., Pyrrhon. Hypotyp. iii. s. 198 seqq.] [Side-note: Plato and Aristotle required subordination of impulse to reason and duty--they applied this to the procreative impulse, as to others.]