terms, gleaned from the sayings of our sages (may their memory be blessed!) seems to be this. In their opinion, a modest man is one who is very bashful, and therefore modesty is the mean. This we gather from their saying, "A shamefaced man cannot learn".[1] They also assert, "A modest man is worthy of Paradise"[2], but they do not say this of a shamefaced man. Therefore, I have thus arranged them."[3]] So it is with the other qualities. One does not necessarily have to use conventional terms for these qualities, if only the ideas are clearly fixed in the mind.[4]
It often happens, however, that men err as regards these qualities, imagining that one of the extremes is good, and is a virtue. Sometimes, the extreme of the too much is considered noble, as when temerity is made a virtue, and those who recklessly risk their lives are hailed as heroes. Thus, when people see a man, reckless to the highest degree, who runs deliberately into danger, intentionally tempting death, and escaping only by mere chance, they laud such a one to the skies, and say that he is a hero. At other times, the opposite extreme, the too little, is greatly esteemed, and the coward[5] is considered a man of forbearance; the idler, as being a person of a contented disposition; and he, who by the dullness of his nature is callous to every joy, is praised as a man of moderation, [that is, one who eschews sin]. In like manner, profuse liberality and extreme lavishness are erroneously extolled as excellent characteristics.[6] This is, however, an absolutely mistaken view, for the really praiseworthy
- ↑ Abot, II, 5.
- ↑ Abot, V, 20.
- ↑ See Hebrew text, c. IV, p. 21, n. 16.
- ↑ Aristotle also mentions the paucity of terms to express the nice distinctions he makes (Eth. Nic., II, 7).
- ↑ Better, "the apathetic"; see Hebrew text, c. IV, p. 21, n. 27.
- ↑ Cf. Eth. Nic., II, 9, "for we ourselves sometimes praise those who are defective in this feeling (anger), and we call them gentle; at another, we term the hot-tempered manly and spirited."
gentleness (II, 7, and IV, 5), friendliness (II, 7, and IV, 6), truthfulness (II, 7. and IV, 7), jocularity or liveliness (II, 7, and IV, 8), and modesty (II, 7, and IV, 9). Cf., also, Eudemian Ethics, II, 3, where a formal table is given contaning fourteen virtues and their respective pairs of extremes; and Mag. Mor. I, 20 ff.
