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Also (c) it is our reasoned acts that are felt to be in the fullest
sense our own acts, voluntary acts. It is therefore clear that a man is or is chiefly the
dominant part of himself, and that a good man values this part of himself most. Hence the
good man will be a lover of self in the fullest degree, though in another sense than the
lover of self so-called by way of reproach, from whom he differs as much as living by
principle differs from living by passion, and aiming at what is noble from aiming at what
seems expedient.
[7]
Persons therefore who are exceptionally
zealous in noble actions are universally approved and commended; and if all men vied with
each other in moral nobility and strove to perform the noblest deeds, the common welfare
would be fully realized, while individuals also could enjoy the greatest of goods,
inasmuch as virtue is the greatest good.
Therefore the good man ought to be a lover of self, since he will then both benefit
himself by acting nobly and aid his fellows; but the bad man ought not to be a lover of
self, since he will follow his base passions, and so injure both himself and his
neighbors.
[8]
With the bad man therefore, what he does is
not in accord with what he ought to do, but the good man does what he ought, since
intelligence always chooses for itself that which is best, and the good man obeys his
intelligence.
[9]
But it is also true that the virtuous man's conduct is often guided by the interests of
his friends and of his country, and that he will if necessary lay down his life in their behalf. For he will surrender wealth and
power and all the goods that men struggle to win, if he can secure nobility for himself;
since he would prefer an hour of rapture to a long period of mild enjoyment, a year of
noble life to many years of ordinary existence, one great and glorious exploit to many
small successes. And this is doubtless the case with those who give their lives for
others; thus they choose great nobility for themselves. Also the virtuous man is ready to
forgo money if by that means his friends may gain more money; for thus, though his friend
gets money, he himself achieves nobility, and so he assigns the greater good to his own
share.
[10]
And he behaves in the same manner as regards
honors and offices also: all these things he will relinquish to his friend, for this is
noble and praiseworthy for himself. He is naturally therefore thought to be virtuous, as
he chooses moral nobility in preference to all other things. It may even happen that he
will surrender to his friend the performance of some achievement, and that it may be
nobler for him to be the cause of his friend's performing it than to perform it himself.
[11]
Therefore in all spheres of praiseworthy conduct it is manifest that the good man takes
the larger share of moral nobility for himself.