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Let us next begin a fresh part of the subject by laying down that the states of moral character to be avoided are of three kinds—Vice, Unrestraint, and Bestiality.1 The opposite dispositions in the case of two of the three are obvious: one we call Virtue, the other Self-restraint. As the opposite of Bestiality it will be most suitable to speak of Superhuman Virtue, or goodness on a heroic or divine scale; just as Homer2 has represented Priam as saying of Hector, on account of his surpassing valor— “ nor seemed to be
The son of mortal man, but of a god.

1 Or Brutality: the two English words have acquired slightly different shades of meaning, which are combined in the Greek.

2 Hom. Il. 24.258. The preceding words are, ‘ Hector, who was a god.’

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