E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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‘Things that inspire confidence are (therefore) things dreadful or dangerous when at a distance’—it is the remoteness of them, not the things themselves as the text seems to say, that inspires the confidence— ‘and things that embolden us (cheering, inspiriting) when close at hand. And if there be means of rectifying, setting right again, repairing, remedying, the mischief we dread (after it is done), or of helping, defending ourselves against it, rescuing ourselves from it, (before it is done; comp. § 12, where Schrader thus distinguishes the two, correctio mali praeteriti, auxilium mali imminentis,) numerous or effective, or both, and we have neither been already injured ourselves nor injured others’—the first on the principle on which the proverb is founded, “the burnt child dreads the fire,” what we have already suffered we fear to suffer again; and the second, because when we have done no injury we fear no retaliation— ‘or again if we have either no rivals and competitors at all, or such as we have are powerless; or, if they have power, are our friends or benefactors or indebted to us for services’. All these are topics opposite to those of fear, comp. §§ 8, 9, 10, 12; from which it appears that the rivalry of the ἀνταγωνισταί consists in the competition for the same things, where there is not enough of them for both the competitors; the rivalry, which naturally engenders ill-feeling, makes you afraid of some injury from your competitor, a fear which is exchanged for confidence, as far as the other is concerned, when there is no rivalry between you. ‘Or if those who have the same interests are more numerous or more powerful, or both, (than those whose interests are different, our rivals or competitors)’.