ed on this
subject to adopt the word "useful" as well as "noble." It is also
evident that the best disposition of each thing will follow in the
same proportion of excess, as the things themselves, of which we allow
they are accidents, differ from each other in value. So that if the
soul is more noble than any outward possession, or than the body, both
in itself and with respect to us, it must be admitted, of course, that
the best disposition of each must follow the same analogy. Besides, it
is for the sake of the soul that these things are desirable, and it is
on this account that wise men should desire them, and not the soul for
them.

Let us therefore be well agreed that so much of happiness falls to the
lot of every one as he possesses of virtue and wisdom, and in
proportion as he acts according to their dictates; since for this we
have the example of the God Himself, who is completely happy, not from
any external good, but in Himself, and because He is such by nature.
For good fortune is something of necessity different from happiness,
as every external good of the soul is produced by chance or by
fortune; but it is not from fortune that any one is just or wise.
Hence it follows, as established by the same reasoning, that the state
which is best, and acts best, will be happy: for no one can fare well
who acts not well; nor can the actions either of man or city be
praiseworthy without virtue and wisdom. For valor, justice and wisdom
have in a state the same force and form as in individuals; and it is
only as he shares in these virtues that each man is said to be just,
wise, and prudent.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 74: Aristotle has been recognized as a great name in the
classic literature of Greece, but this, as Mahaffy points out, is
rather as a critic than as a man of letters in the narrow sense of the
word. Physically he was unattractive. In his day he was thought ugly.
His features were small and his legs thin. A sitting portrait of him,
now preserved in Rome, shows a refined and careworn, tho somewhat hard
face, in which thought and perhaps bodily suffering have drawn deep
furrows. His writings are said to have numbered about four hundred.]

[Footnote 75: From Book I of the "Rhetoric." Translated by Theodore
Buckley.]

[Footnote 76: From Book VII of the "Politics." Translated by Edward
Walford.]

III

IDEAL HUSBANDS AND WIVES[77]

But as to man, the first object of his care should be respecting a