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[15]
On the
other hand, when some act is performed in which we
see “mean” duties manifested, that is generally regarded as fully perfect, for the reason that the common crowd does not, as a rule, comprehend how far it
falls short of real perfection; but, as far as their comprehension does go, they think there is no deficiency.
This same thing ordinarily occurs in the estimation of
poems, paintings, and a great many other works of
art: ordinary people enjoy and praise things that do
not deserve praise. The reason for this, I suppose, is
that those productions have some point of excellence
which catches the fancy of the uneducated, because
these have not the ability to discover the points of
weakness in any particular piece of work before
them. And so, when they are instructed by experts,
they readily abandon their former opinion.
4. The performance of the duties, then, which I1
am discussing in these books, is called by the Stoics
a sort of second-grade moral goodness, not the peculiar
property of their wise men, but shared by them with
all mankind.
1 Absolute goodness and imperfeet humanity,
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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