wise depend on that medium. It is prudent to give even one's rival
half the road, and to divide the spoils with him. There is a politic
form of _honesty_; and _veracity_ may be conceived only as a kind of
caution. Thus Menander says: "It is always best to speak the truth in
all circumstances. This is a precept which contributes most to safety
of life." [4] _Tact_ is only a more refined method of avoiding the
antagonism of interests that operate within the same field of social
intercourse.

The economy of prudence has its own characteristic value. Indeed, if
this were not so there would be no possibility of that form of baseness
known as being _merely_ prudent. There is a prudential equilibrium; a
condition of smooth and harmonious adjustment, within the personal life
or the community. I propose that this equilibrium be termed _health_.
In that admirable idealization of renaissance morality, Castiglione's
{89} _Book of the Courtier_, the author refers to the immediate reward
of self-control that comes both from inner harmony and the approbation
of one's fellows. To instil goodness into the mind, "to teach
continence, fortitude, justice, temperance," Castiglione would give his
prince "a taste of how much sweetness is hidden by the little
bitterness that at first sight appears to him, who withstands vice;
which is always hurtful and displeasing, and accompanied by infamy and
blame, just as virtue is profitable, blithe, and full of praise." [5]

Socially, the healthful equilibrium corresponds to that "peace" which
Hobbes praised above all things;[6] and which is all that is asked for
by those who wish to be let alone in order that they may pursue their
own affairs. Although such peace may be ignominious, it need not be
so; and a sense of security and reciprocal adjustment must remain among
the surviving values, whatever higher achievements be added to it. But
the inherent value of health is most clearly defined by a nice
equilibration of activities within the medium of the individual
organism. I borrow the following description of health in this sense
from a recent book by H. G. Wells:

The balance as between asceticism and sensuality comes in, it seems to
me, if we remember that to drink well one must not have drunken for
some time, {90} that to see well one's eye must be clear, that to make
love well one must be fit and gracious and sweet and disciplined from
top to toe, that the finest sense of all--the j