17. In regard to
power, nearly all the characters to which it gives rise are equally clear; for
power, compared with wealth, exhibits partly identical, and partly superior
characteristics.
[2]
Thus, the powerful are more
ambitious and more manly in character than the rich, since they aim at the
performance of deeds which their power gives them the opportunity of carrying
out.
[3]
And they are more energetic; for being
obliged to look after their power, they are always on the watch.1
[4]
And they are dignified rather than heavily
pompous; for their rank renders them more conspicuous, so that they avoid
excess; and this dignity is a mild and decent pomposity. And their wrongdoings
are never petty, but great.
[5]
Good fortune in its divisions2
exhibits characters corresponding to those which have just been mentioned; for
those which appear to be the most important kinds of good fortune tend in their
direction; further, good fortune furnishes advantages over others in the
blessing of children and bodily goods.
[6]
Now, although men are
more arrogant and thoughtless owing to good fortune, it is accompanied by a most
precious quality. Fortunate men stand in a certain relation to the divinity and
love the gods, having confidence in them owing to the benefits they have
received from fortune. We have spoken3 of the characters associated with different ages and
fortunes; the opposite characters to those described, for instance, of the poor,
of the unfortunate, and of the weak, are obvious from their opposites.
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1 ἐν ἐπιμελείᾳ: “because they are administrators” （Jebb）.
2 The three divisions are noble birth, wealth, and power. The meaning is that the highest kinds of good fortune tend or converge to these （i.e., to noble birth, wealth, and power）. κατὰ τὰ μόρια might also mean “in part.” Hobbes, in his Brief of the Art of Rhetorick, paraphrases: “the manners of men that prosper, are compounded of the manners of the nobility, the rich, and those that are in power, for to some of these all prosperity appertains.”
3 Book 2.12-14, 15-17.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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