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9.
Enough has now been said to show that moral virtue is a mean, and in what sense this is
so, namely that it is a mean between two vices, one of excess and the other of defect; and
that it is such a mean because it aims at hitting the middle point in feelings and in
actions.
[2]
This is why it is a hard task to be good, for it
is hard to find the middle point in anything: for instance, not everybody can find the
center of a circle, but only someone who knows geometry. So also anybody can become
angry—that is easy, and so it is to give and spend money; but to be angry with
or give money to the right person, and to the right amount, and at the right time, and for
the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not within everybody's power and
is not easy; so that to do these things properly is rare, praiseworthy, and
noble.
[3]
Hence the first rule in aiming at the mean is to avoid that extreme which is the more
opposed to the mean, as Calypso advises1— “
Steer the ship clear of yonder spray and surge.
” For of the two extremes one is a more serious error than the other. [4] Hence, inasmuch as to hit the mean extremely well is difficult,2 the second best way to sail,3 as the saying goes, is to take the least of the evils; and the best way to do this will be the way we enjoin.
” For of the two extremes one is a more serious error than the other. [4] Hence, inasmuch as to hit the mean extremely well is difficult,2 the second best way to sail,3 as the saying goes, is to take the least of the evils; and the best way to do this will be the way we enjoin.
1 Hom. Od. 12.219: really the words are said by Odysseus, conveying to his steersman Circe's advice, to avoid the whirlpool of Charybdis which will engulf them all, and steer nearer to the monster Scylla who will devour only some of them.
2 Or ‘to hit the mean is extremely difficult.’
3 A proverb, meaning to take to the oars when the wind fails.