[17]
Before the three remaining virtues, on the other
hand, is set the task of providing and maintaining
those things on which the practical business of life
depends, so that the relations of man to man in
human society may be conserved, and that largeness
and nobility of soul may be revealed not only in
increasing one's resources and acquiring advantages
for one's self and one's family but far more in rising
superior to these very things. But orderly behaviour
and consistency of demeanour and self-control and
the like have their sphere in that department of
things in which a certain amount of physical exertion, and not mental activity merely, is required.
For if we bring a certain amount of propriety and
order into the transactions of daily life, we shall be
conserving moral rectitude and moral dignity.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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