he
beginning run through different paths, and there is one path alone
which leads us to our peace; and therefore, leaving all the others
alone, it is for the treatise to follow the course of that one who
begins well.

I say, then, that from the beginning a man loves himself, although
indistinctly; then comes the distinguishing of those things which to
him are more or less; to be more or less loved or hated; and he
follows after and flies from either more or less according as the
right habit distinguishes, not only in the other things which he loves
in a secondary manner, for he even distinguishes in himself which
thing he loves principally; and perceiving in himself divers parts,
those which are the noblest in him he loves most. But, since the
noblest part of man is the Mind, he loves that more than the Body; and
thus, loving himself principally, and through himself other things,
and of himself loving the better part most, it is evident that he
loves the Mind more than the Body or any other thing; and the Mind it
is that, naturally, more than any other thing he ought to love.

Then, if the Mind always delights in the use of the beloved thing,
which is the fruit of love, the use of that thing which is especially
beloved is especially delightful: the use of our Mind is especially
delightful to us, and that which is especially delightful to us
becomes our Happiness and our Beatitude, beyond which there is no
greater delight or pleasure, nor any equal to it, as may be seen by
him who looks well at the preceding argument.

And no one ought to say that every appetite is Mind; for here one
understands Mind solely as that which belongs to the Rational part,
that is, the Will and the Intellect; so that if any one should wish to
call Mind the appetite of the Senses, here it has no place, nor can it
have any abiding; for no one doubts that the Rational appetite is more
noble than the Sensual, and therefore more to be loved; and so is this
of which we are now speaking.

The use of our Mind is double, that is to say, Practical and
Speculative (it is Practical insomuch as it has the power of acting);
both the one and the other are delightful in their use, but that of
Contemplation is the most pleasing, as has been said above. The use of
the Practical is to act in or through us virtuously, that is to say,
honestly or uprightly, with Prudence, with Temperance, with Courage,
and with Justice. The use of the Speculative is not to wo