erefore I consider that all, and not
only excessive, games should be avoided." Now that which can be done
virtuously is not to be avoided altogether. Therefore there cannot be
a virtue about games.

Obj. 2: Further, "Virtue is that which God forms in us, without us,"
as stated above (I-II, Q. 55, A. 4). Now Chrysostom says [*Hom. vi in
Matth.]: "It is not God, but the devil, that is the author of fun.
Listen to what happened to those who played: 'The people sat down to
eat and drink, and they rose up to play.'" Therefore there can be no
virtue about games.

Obj. 3: Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. x, 6) that "playful
actions are not directed to something else." But it is a requisite of
virtue that the agent in choosing should "direct his action to
something else," as the Philosopher states (Ethic. ii, 4). Therefore
there can be no virtue about games.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Music. ii, 15): "I pray thee,
spare thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax
the high pressure of his attention to work." Now this relaxation of
the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds. Therefore it
becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at
times. Moreover the Philosopher [*Ethic. ii, 7; iv, 8] assigns to
games the virtue of _eutrapelia_, which we may call "pleasantness."

_I answer that,_ Just as man needs bodily rest for the body's
refreshment, because he cannot always be at work, since his power is
finite and equal to a certain fixed amount of labor, so too is it
with his soul, whose power is also finite and equal to a fixed amount
of work. Consequently when he goes beyond his measure in a certain
work, he is oppressed and becomes weary, and all the more since when
the soul works, the body is at work likewise, in so far as the
intellective soul employs forces that operate through bodily organs.
Now sensible goods are connatural to man, and therefore, when the
soul arises above sensibles, through being intent on the operations
of reason, there results in consequence a certain weariness of soul,
whether the operations with which it is occupied be those of the
practical or of the speculative reason. Yet this weariness is greater
if the soul be occupied with the work of contemplation, since thereby
it is raised higher above sensible things; although perhaps certain
outward works of the practical reason entail a greater bodily labor.
In either case, however, one man is m