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virtuous are ours.
[6]
Now some thinkers hold that virtue is a gift of nature; others think we become good by
habit, others that we can be taught to be good. Natural endowment is obviously not under
our control; it is bestowed on those who are fortunate, in the true sense, by some divine
dispensation. Again, theory and teaching are not, I fear, equally efficacious in all
cases: the soil must have been previously tilled if it is to foster the seed, the mind of
the pupil must have been prepared by the cultivation of habits, so as to like and dislike
aright.
[7]
For he that lives at the dictates of passion will
not hear nor understand the reasoning of one who tries to dissuade him; but if so, how can
you change his mind by argument?
And, speaking generally, passion seems not to be amenable to reason, but only to force.
[8]
We must therefore by some means secure that the character shall have at the outset a
natural affinity for virtue, loving what is noble and hating what is base. And it is
difficult to obtain a right education in virtue from youth up without being brought up
under right laws; for to live temperately and hardily is not pleasant to most men,
especially when young; hence the nurture and exercises of the young should be regulated by
law, since temperance and hardiness will not be painful when they have become habitual.