as is proved in _Ethic._ ii, 1, 2. But man can
exercise himself in the acts of one virtue, without exercising
himself in the acts of some other virtue. Therefore it is possible to
have one moral virtue without another.
Obj. 2: Further, magnificence and magnanimity are moral virtues. Now
a man may have other moral virtues without having magnificence or
magnanimity: for the Philosopher says (Ethic. iv, 2, 3) that "a poor
man cannot be magnificent," and yet he may have other virtues; and
(Ethic. iv) that "he who is worthy of small things, and so accounts
his worth, is modest, but not magnanimous." Therefore the moral
virtues are not connected with one another.
Obj. 3: Further, as the moral virtues perfect the appetitive part of
the soul, so do the intellectual virtues perfect the intellective
part. But the intellectual virtues are not mutually connected: since
we may have one science, without having another. Neither, therefore,
are the moral virtues connected with one another.
Obj. 4: Further, if the moral virtues are mutually connected, this
can only be because they are united together in prudence. But this
does not suffice to connect the moral virtues together. For,
seemingly, one may be prudent about things to be done in relation to
one virtue, without being prudent in those that concern another
virtue: even as one may have the art of making certain things,
without the art of making certain others. Now prudence is right
reason about things to be done. Therefore the moral virtues are not
necessarily connected with one another.
_On the contrary,_ Ambrose says on Luke 6:20: "The virtues are
connected and linked together, so that whoever has one, is seen to
have several": and Augustine says (De Trin. vi, 4) that "the virtues
that reside in the human mind are quite inseparable from one
another": and Gregory says (Moral. xxii, 1) that "one virtue without
the other is either of no account whatever, or very imperfect": and
Cicero says (Quaest. Tusc. ii): "If you confess to not having one
particular virtue, it must needs be that you have none at all."
_I answer that,_ Moral virtue may be considered either as perfect or
as imperfect. An imperfect moral virtue, temperance for instance, or
fortitude, is nothing but an inclination in us to do some kind of
good deed, whether such inclination be in us by nature or by
habituation. If we take the moral virtues in this way, they are not
connected: since we find men who, by na
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