224 l/-95
thing. That is why the virtuous man is also the only wealthy and free
man, and the base man, conversely, is a pauper (since he is deficient in the
requirements for wealth) and a slave (because of his suspect disposition).
All good things are common to the virtuous, and bad things to the
base. That is why he who benefits someone else is also benefitted himself,
and he who harms someone also harms himself. All virtuous men benefit
each other, even though they are not in all cases friends of each other
or well disposed [to each other] or in good repute [with each other] or
receptive [of each other], because they do not have a [cognitive] grasp
of each other and do not live in the same place. They, however, are
disposed to be well disposed and to be friendly to each other and to hold
[each other] in good repute and to be receptive [of each other]. The
imprudent are in a condition opposite to this.
Since the law, as we said, is virtuous (because it is right reason which
commands what is to be done and forbids what is not be done), they say
that only the wise man is lawful, since he does what is commanded by
the law and is the only interpreter of it, and that is why he is a man of
the law. And silly men are in the opposite condition.
Again, they also assign to the virtuous the supervisory function of a
ruler and its forms: kingship, generalship, naval command, and forms of
rule like these. Accordingly, only the virtuous man rules, and even if he
does not in all circumstances do so in actuality, still in all circumstances
he does so by disposition. And only the virtuous man is obedient, since
he is prone to follow a ruler. But none of the imprudent is like this; for
the imprudent man is not able either to rule or to be ruled, since he is
stubborn and intractable.
The sensible man does everything well, since he continuously makes
use of his experience of life in a prudent and self-controlled and orderly
and organized fashion. But the base man, since he has no experience of
the right use [of things] does everything badly, acting in accordance with
the disposition he has, being prone to change [his mind] and seized by
regret about each thing [he does]. And regret is [a feeling of] pain [one
has] about actions which have been performed, because [of the belief
that] they were [moral] mistakes made by oneself; and this is a passion
of the soul which produces unhappiness and internal strife. For in so far
as the regretful man loathes what has happened, to that extent he is
angry at himself for having been responsible for these events. And this
is why the base man is dishonoured, since he is neither worthy of honour
nor honoured. For honour is worthiness of reward and reward is the
prize for virtue which does good for others. Thus what does not participate
in virtue would justly be called dishonoured.
They say that every base man is an exile, in so far as he is deprived