This makes men fancy that
external goods are the cause of happiness, yet we might as well say
that a brilliant performance on the lyre was to be attributed to the
instrument and not to the skill of the performer.
It follows then from what has been said that some things the
legislator must find ready to his hand in a state, others he must
provide. And therefore we can only say: May our state be constituted
in such a manner as to be blessed with the goods of which fortune
disposes (for we acknowledge her power): whereas virtue and goodness
in the state are not a matter of chance but the result of knowledge
and purpose. A city can be virtuous only when the citizens who have
a share in the government are virtuous, and in our state all the
citizens share in the government; let us then inquire how a man
becomes virtuous. For even if we could suppose the citizen body to
be virtuous, without each of them being so, yet the latter would be
better, for in the virtue of each the virtue of all is involved.
There are three things which make men good and virtuous; these are
nature, habit, rational principle. In the first place, every one
must be born a man and not some other animal; so, too, he must have
a certain character, both of body and soul. But some qualities there
is no use in having at birth, for they are altered by habit, and there
are some gifts which by nature are made to be turned by habit to
good or bad.
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