56 Polıteía
events, learned much from experience, and then finally entered their twilight
years. The result is a psychological portrait of considerable subtlety which may
throw a great deal of light on the nature of the Spartan regime.
“In character,” Aristotle observes, “the young are guided by desire and pre-
pared to act in accord with its dictates.” They are particularly vulnerable to
sexual license because they lack full self-control. At the same time, “they are
quick to change and fickle in their desires”; and because “their impulses are
keen but not grand,” they tend to oscillate between violent passion and sudden
disinterest. In addition, “young men are spirited, sharp-tempered, and apt to
give way to anger.” They are unable entirely to restrain the spirited part of their
souls; and “owing to phılotımía, they cannot endure being slighted and become
indignant when they suppose that they have been wronged.” But although the
young love honor, “they love victory even more” because they desire the “su-
periority” which only victory can bring. Accordingly, they attach little value
to money “because they have never experienced the trials arising from want.”
This dearth of unpleasant experience has other consequences as well. In partic-
ular, the young are good-natured, quick to trust, and full of hope. In addition,
“they are hot-blooded—like men drunk on wine.” They have themselves had
little opportunity to blunder; and because the future before them seems open,
they are guided by hope. “In the first days of one’s life,” Aristotle observes, “one
has nothing to remember and everything to look forward to.”
Both because the young are hot-blooded and because they so easily give
way to hope, they tend to be courageous. “An angry man is not likely to know
fear,” Aristotle explains, “and hope is good for generating confidence.” This
courage is balanced by a certain vulnerability to shame, a certain natural bash-
fulness; and since the young “have been educated in accord with convention
and have not yet conceived of other things as honorable,” they can easily be
kept under control. Furthermore, because they have “not been laid low by life
and are as yet untried by harsh necessity,” young men tend to be high-minded
and magnanimous—to be what the Greeks called “men of great soul [megalóp
suchoı ]”—and to think themselves “worthy of great things.” As a consequence,
the young choose “to perform deeds of nobility rather than works of advan-
tage and to govern their conduct in accord with the dictates of good character
rather than in accord with those of calculation.” This distinction is important
because “calculation aims at the advantageous while virtue seeks the noble.”
Furthermore, men are more likely when young to “hold friends and compan-