in their i. Passions. 2. Vary I call anger, lust, and the like, by the name passions; a subject of which we have treated above. By the name habits, I designate virtues and vices: and ii. Habits. of these we have treated above, both as to the points on which men form deliberate choice, and that to which they give birth in action. And the ages are youth, prime, and old age. By fortune I mean, high birth, and wealth, and abilities, and their opposites; and, in one word, good and bad fortune. ii. Ages. iv. For tunes. 3. Cha the young. Incon 4. Now the young are in their dispositions prone to racter of desire, and of a character to effect what they desire. And they are in the highest degree apt to pursue the Ardent. pleasures of love above all desires about which the body is concerned, and in these they are incontinent. But they are prone to change, and fastidious in the stant. objects of their desires. And they desire with earnestness, but speedily cease to desire; for their wishes are keen, without being durable; just like the hunger Irritable. and thirst of the sick. And they are passionate and irritable, and of a temperament to follow the impulse. 5. And they cannot overcome their anger; for by reason of their ambition they do not endure a slight, but become indignant, and fancy themselves injured: and they are ambitious indeed of honour, but more so of 6. victory; for youth is desirous of superiority, and victory is a sort of superiority. And of both these are they desirous in a higher degree than of gain; but least of all are they desirous of gain3, by reason of their having never yet experienced want; just according to the proverbial saying of Pittacus to Amphiaraus. And they do not view things in a bad Ambitious. 7. Sanguine. When some one peculiar quality Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw Every Man out of his Humour: where see Whalley's note. 3 Power pleases the violent and proud: wealth delights the placid and timorous. Youth therefore flies at power, and age grovels after riches. Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides, p. 344. 4 It is not known what this saying of Pittacus was. lous. Their life is one of hope. light, but in a good, by reason of their never having yet been witnesses of much depravity. And they Creduare credulous, from their never having yet been much imposed on. And they are sanguine in their 8. expectations; for like those who are affected by wine, so the young are warmed by their nature; and at the same time from their having never yet met with many repulses. Their life, too, for the most part, is one of hope; for hope is of that which is yet to be, while memory is of that which is passed: but to the young that which is yet to be, is long; but that which has passed, is short; for in the early days of life they think they remember nothing, while they hope for every thing; and they are easily imposed on, for the reason which has been stated; because they soon cherish expectation. And they are brave 9. Rash rather to an excess; for they are irritable and sanguine, qualities, the one whereof cancels fear, and the other inspires courage; for while no one who is affected by anger ever is afraid, the being in hope of some good is a thing to give courage. And they are 10. Bashbashful; for they do not as yet conceive the honour- ful. able to be any thing distinct, but they have been educated only under the established usage of the state. And they are high-minded; for they have not 11. Highas yet been humbled by the course of life, but are spirited. unexperienced in peremptory circumstances: again, high-mindedness is the deeming one's self worthy of much; and this belongs to persons of sanguine expectations. And they prefer succeeding in an hon- 12. With ourable sense than in points of expediency; for they honour. live more in conformity to moral feeling than to mere calculations; and calculation is of the expedient, moral excellence, however, of that which is honourable. Again, they are fond of friends and companions 13. Social rather than of their other compeers in age, by reason of their delighting in social intercourse, and of their not yet deciding on any thing in reference to what is 5 Aoyiouos is that one of the seven causes of human action which least affects the young. They usually act from Jvuos or ἐπιθυμία. a sense of expedient; so that they do not decide on their friends 14. Their [upon that principle]. And all their errors are on errors are the side of excess and too great earnestness, in con on the side of excess. 15. Their insults are mis travention of Chilo's rule; for the young carry every thing to an excess; for their friendships are in excess, their hatreds are in excess, and they do every thing else with the same degree of earnestness; they think also that they know every thing, and firmly asseverate that they do; for this is the cause of their pushing every thing to an excess. And, in their trespasses, they trespass on the side of wantonness, chievous and not of malice. They are likewise prone to pity, from their conceiving every one to be good, and more worthy than in fact he is; for they measure others by the standard of their own guiltlessness; so that they conceive them to be suffering what they do 16. Are not deserve. And they are fond of mirth, on which gracefully account they are also of a facetious turn7; for facefacetious. tiousness is chastened forwardness of manner. not malicious. Prone to pity. Such, then, is the disposition of the young. CHAP. XIII. Of the Passions and Habits of those advanced in Life. 1. Charac- BUT those who are advanced in life, and who have passed their prime, are of dispositions in most points ter of the old. 6 Vide note, chap. xiii. p. 154. 7 Εὐτράπελοι. I know no word in our language of similar moral signification in which the metaphorical allusion to Tpéπw, the turn, or easy adaptation of manner, is preserved, unless indeed Minshew be correct in his etymology of Buxome, which, according to him, is derived from the German word booghsacm, i. FLEXILIS, and refers to the article pliant for further explan ation. If this etymology be true, then Milton's expression, buxom, blythe, and debonnaire, though applied rather to female than manly grace, will convey a notion of what is here intended by Aristotle. But see Minshew, p. 106, edit. 1627. In the Ethics, b. 4, he compares εUTρаTEλía to gracefulness of person; which, in conformity with the notions of most ancient writers, he seems to think only discoverable in motion, not in rest. Compare also "Crito, or a Dialogue on Beauty." the dark the very opposite of these. Since by reason of their having lived many years, and having been deceived in a greater number of instances, and having mistaken, by reason, too, that the majority of human affairs are but worthless, they neither positively as- The old are doubt severate any thing, and they err in every thing more ful. on the side of defect than they ought. And they 2. always "suppose," but never "know" certainly; and, questioning every thing, they always subjoin a "perhaps," or a "possibly." And they talk of every Indecithing in this undecisive tone, asserting nothing de- sive. cisively. And they are apt to view things in an 3. View unfavourable light; for a disposition thus to view things on things, is the judging of every thing on the worse side. side. Moreover they are apt to be suspicious from Suspidistrust, and they are distrustful from their expe- cious. rience. And on this account they neither love nor 4. hate with great earnestness; but, conformably to the Cautious remark of Bias, they both love as though about to hate, and hate as though about to love. And they 5. Coware pusillanimous, from their having been humbled ardly. by the course of life; for they raise their desires to nothing great or vast, but to things only which conduce to support of life. And they are illiberal; for 6. Illibeproperty is one of the necessaries; and they are at the same time aware, from their experience, of the difficulty of its acquisition, and of the ease with which it is lost. And they are timid and apprehen- 7. Timid sive of every thing; for their disposition is the reverse of that of the young; for they have been chilled by years, but the young are warm in their temperament; so that their age has paved the way to timidity; for fear is a certain kind of chill. And 8. Tenathey are attached to life, and particularly at its last cious of closing day, from the circumstance that desire is of some object which is absent, and that men more especially desire that of which they stand in need. they have self-love more than is fitting; for this too is a kind of littleness of spirit. And they live in a greater degree than they ought by the standard of expediency, and not of what is honourable, by reason ral. life. And 9. Selfish 10. De pear ances. 11. De 12. Their life is one of memo ry. of their self-love: for what is expedient is good relatively, to one's self; but what is honourable is good absolutely. And they are insensible to shame, rather spise ap- than liable to be affected by it; for on account of their not holding equally in esteem the honourable and the expedient, they despise appearances. Again, sponding. they are not easily inspired with hope, on account of their experience; for the majority of things are but paltry; wherefore the generality turn out inferior to the expectation; and once more on account of their timidity [they are apt to despond]. And they live more in memory than in hope; for the remnant of life is brief, but what has passed is considerable; and hope indeed is of what is to come; whereas memory is of things gone by: the very reason this, of their garrulity; for they never cease talking of that which has taken place, since they are delighted in awaken13. Weak ing the recollections of things. And their anger is in anger, keen, but faint. And their desires have, some, abandoned them, the others are faint; so that neither are they liable to the influence of desire, nor apt to act in conformity to it, but with a view to gain; on which account men of this age appear to be naturally temperate, for both their desires have relaxed, and Live from they are enslaved to gain. And they live more by calculation than by moral feeling; for calculation is of expediency, but moral feeling is of virtue. And, on the side in their trespasses, they trespass on the side of malice, not of wanton insolence. The old have moreover a tendency to pity, but not on the same principle with the young; for the latter are thus disposed from their love of human nature, the former from their imbecility; since they consider the endurance of every calamity at hand to them, and this was laid Queru- down as a principle of pity 2. Whence they are queTheir principles of action are the very contraries of those which principally influence the young; 0os and λoyiμós being the usual springs of action in the man of advanced life. but keen. calcula tion. 14. Err of malice. 15. Are apt to pity, from weakness. lous. 2 The two leading principles of pity were stated to be, a conriction that the sufferer is undeserving what he suffers, and that you consider yourself liable to be placed in similar circumstances. It was on the former of these principles that the young were stated |