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‘And (again a fortiori) the possibility of making or doing any thing well, necessarily carries with it the possibility of the making or doing of it in general’ (ὅλως, the general or abstract conception of making or doing; in any way, well or ill): ‘for to be a good house is a harder thing than to be a mere house’, of any kind. The same may be said of a fine picture, statue, literary composition, or any work of art; anything in short in which ἀρετή, merit, or excellence, τὸ σπουδαῖον, can be shewn. ῥᾷον γὰρ ὁτιοῦν ποιῆσαι ἢ καλῶς ποιῆσαι, Top. Z 1, 139 b 8 (cited by Schrader). Compare with this Metaph. Δ 12, 1019 a 23 (on the various acceptations of δυνατόν), ἔτι ἡ τοῦ καλῶς τοῦτ᾽ ἐπιτελεῖν (δύναμις) ἢ κατὰ προαίρεσιν: ἐνίοτε γὰρ τοὺς μόνον ἂν πορευθέντας ἢ εἰπόντας, μὴ καλῶς ἢ μὴ ὡς προείλοντο, οὔ φαμεν δύνασθαι λέγειν ἢ βαδίζειν; which may possibly have suggested the introduction of the topic here.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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