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who was
nicknamed the filial for his devotion to his father, for he was thought to carry it to the
point of infatuation—) : well then, there cannot be any actual Vice in
relation to these things, because, as has been said, each of them is in itself desirable
by nature, although excessive devotion to them is bad and to be avoided.
[6]
And similarly there cannot be Unrestraint either, since that is not
merely to be avoided, but actually blameworthy; though people do use the term in these
matters with a qualification— ‘unrestraint in’ whatever it
may be—because the affection does resemble Unrestraint proper; just as they
speak of someone as a bad doctor or bad actor whom they would not call simply
‘bad.’ As therefore we do not call bad doctors and actors bad men,
because neither kind of incapacity is actually a vice, but only resembles Vice by analogy,
so in the former case it is clear that only self-restraint and lack of restraint in regard
to the same things as are the objects of Temperance and Profligacy are to be deemed
Self-restraint and Unrestraint proper, and that these terms are applied to anger only by
analogy; and so we add a qualification, ‘unrestrained in anger,’ just
as we say ‘unrestrained in the pursuit of honor’ or
‘gain.’ 5.
Besides those things however which are naturally pleasant, of which some are pleasant
generally and others pleasant to particular races of animals and of men, there are other
things, not naturally pleasant, which become pleasant either as a result of arrested
development or from habit, or in some cases owing to natural depravity. Now corresponding
to each of these kinds of unnatural pleasures we may observe a related disposition of
character.
[2]
I mean bestial characters,