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since we hold that the truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a
seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow; even
as a good general makes the most effective use of the forces at his disposal, and a good
shoemaker makes the finest shoe possible out of the leather supplied him, and so on with
all the other crafts and professions.
[14]
And this being so,
the happy man can never become miserable; though it is true he will not be supremely
blessed if he encounters the misfortunes of a Priam. Nor yet assuredly will he be variable
and liable to change; for he will not be dislodged from his happiness easily, nor by
ordinary misfortunes, but only by severe and frequent disasters, nor will he recover from
such disasters and become happy again quickly, but only, if at all, after a long term of
years, in which he has had time to compass high distinctions and achievements.
[15]
May not we then confidently pronounce that man happy who realizes complete goodness in
action, and is adequately furnished with external goods? Or should we add, that he must
also be destined to go on living not1 for any casual period but throughout a complete
lifetime in the same manner, and to die accordingly, because the future is hidden from us,
and we conceive happiness as an end, something utterly and absolutely final and complete?
[16]
If this is so, we shall pronounce
1 The clause ‘not . . . lifetime’ stands above after ‘external goods’ in the mss.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934.
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