its 'strength'] is put at a hundredweight, and not at sixty.
But the objection takes virtue as being essentially the limit of
power.

Reply Obj. 2: Good use of free-will is said to be a virtue, in the
same sense as above (ad 1); that is to say, because it is that to
which virtue is directed as to its proper act. For the act of virtue
is nothing else than the good use of free-will.

Reply Obj. 3: We are said to merit by something in two ways. First,
as by merit itself, just as we are said to run by running; and thus
we merit by acts. Secondly, we are said to merit by something as by
the principle whereby we merit, as we are said to run by the motive
power; and thus are we said to merit by virtues and habits.

Reply Obj. 4: When we say that virtue is the order or ordering of
love, we refer to the end to which virtue is ordered: because in us
love is set in order by virtue.

Reply Obj. 5: Natural powers are of themselves determinate to one
act: not so the rational powers. And so there is no comparison, as we
have said.
________________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 55, Art. 2]

Whether Human Virtue Is an Operative Habit?

Objection 1: It would seem that it is not essential to human virtue
to be an operative habit. For Tully says (Tuscul. iv) that as health
and beauty belong to the body, so virtue belongs to the soul. But
health and beauty are not operative habits. Therefore neither is
virtue.

Obj. 2: Further, in natural things we find virtue not only in
reference to act, but also in reference to being: as is clear from
the Philosopher (De Coelo i), since some have a virtue to be always,
while some have a virtue to be not always, but at some definite time.
Now as natural virtue is in natural things, so is human virtue in
rational beings. Therefore also human virtue is referred not only to
act, but also to being.

Obj. 3: Further, the Philosopher says (Phys. vii, text. 17) that
virtue "is the disposition of a perfect thing to that which is best."
Now the best thing to which man needs to be disposed by virtue is God
Himself, as Augustine proves (De Moribus Eccl. 3, 6, 14) to Whom the
soul is disposed by being made like to Him. Therefore it seems that
virtue is a quality of the soul in reference to God, likening it, as
it were, to Him; and not in reference to operation. It is not,
therefore, an operative habit.

_On the contrary,_ The Philosopher (Ethic. ii, 6) says that "virtue
of a thing is that which ma