specific function. Now,
this cannot be the kind of life which he shares with the vegetable or
with the brute creation, therefore it must be the active life of his
distinctive--_i.q.,_ his rational--part, exercised in accordance with
the virtue or virtues which perfect it, and in his life as a whole, not
merely at moments.

Testing our conclusions by the judgments of common experience, we gather
support from them. Goods external, and goods of the body, are reckoned
inferior to goods of the soul, which is recognised as the seat of
activities. The identification of happiness with virtue, however,
necessitates the distinction between active virtue and virtuousness. As
conducing to active virtue, the other kinds of goods are elements in
happiness. We must assume it to be not something granted to us, outside
our own control, but attainable by effort and education.

Virtues are of two kinds: of the intellect, acquired by study; and
moral, acquired by practice. The moral virtues are not implanted by
nature, but we have the capacity for them by nature, and achieve them by
practice, as by practice we acquire excellence in the arts, or control
over our passions. Education, then, is of the utmost importance, since
the state or habit of virtue is the outcome of virtue in act.

The manner, the "how" of action, must be in accord with Right Reason,
whereof we shall speak elsewhere. Here we must recognise that we are not
laying down universal propositions, but general rules which are modified
by circumstances. Our activities must lie in a mean between the two
extremes of excess and defect, and this applies both to the process of
generating virtue, and to its manifestation. The virtues are concerned
with pleasure and pain, because these act as inducements or opposing
influences; Beauty, Advantage, and Pleasure being the three standing
inducements, and Pleasure entering into both the others; so that in one
aspect Virtue is the Best action in respect to pleasure.

But it does not lie in the mere act; the act must be born of knowledge
and of choice done for its own sake, and persistently--the first,
knowledge, being the least important; to make it the most important is a
speculative error.

Now, there are three modes of mind: feeling or passion, faculty, and
habit. We do not praise or blame passion in itself, or the faculty;
therefore virtue can lie in neither, but must be found in habit or
condition. The virtuous habit or condition i