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‘The character of men in the prime of life will plainly lie between the other two, by subtraction of the excess of each, (so that) they are neither excessively confident—for that kind of disposition is rashness—nor overmuch given to fear, but in a right state of mind as to both, neither implicitly trusting nor altogether distrusting everyone indiscriminately, but rather with a due distinction according to the real facts of the case’. ἀφαιρεῖν, properly opposed to προστιθέναι, as in a numerical calculation to add and subtract. Hence withdraw, remove, et sim. For example, Plat. Cratyl. 431 C, προστιθεὶς ἢ ἀφαιρῶν γράμματα. Ib. 432 A. Phaedo 95 E, bis, et alibi. Xen. de Rep. Ath. III 8 and 9, κατὰ μικρόν τι προσθέντα ἢ ἀφελόντα, ‘by slight and gradual addition or subtraction’ (said of the changes of political constitutions). θαῤῥοῦντες and θρασύτης here preserve their proper distinction, θάρσος, true courage, θράσος, reckless audacity or impudence, though these senses are often interchanged. The verb θαρσεῖν or θαῤῥεῖν, as Plato, Aristotle, and the later Greeks write it, has never the unfavourable sense.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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