The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)

But surely it is strange that when he is happy we should refuse to say what is true of him, because we do not like to apply the term to living men in viewp. 25 of the changes to which they are liable, and because we hold happiness to be something that endures and is little liable to change, while the fortunes of one and the same man often undergo many revolutions : for, it is argued, it is plain that, if we follow the changes of fortune, we shall call the same man happy and miserable many times over, making the happy man " a sort of chameleon and one who rests on no sound foundation."

We reply that it cannot be right thus to follow fortune. For it is not in this that our weal or woe lies ; but, as we said, though the life of man needs these gifts of fortune, yet it is the excellent employment of his powers that constitutes his happiness, as the reverse of this constitutes his misery.

But the discussion of this difficulty leads to a further confirmation of our account. For nothing human is so constant as the excellent exercise of our faculties. The sciences themselves seem to be less abidingr. And the highest of these exercises* are the most abiding, because the happy are occupied with them most of all and most continuously (for this seems to be the reason why we do not forget how to do them t).

; 11 The happy man, then, as we define him, will have this required property of permanence, and all through life will preserve his character ; for he will be occupied continually, or with the least possible interruption, in

* The "highest exercise of our faculties" is, of course, philosophic contemplation, as above, I. 7, 15 ; cf. X. 7, 1.

f We may forget scientific truths that we have known more easily than we lose the habit of scientific thinking or of virtuous action ; cf. X. 7, 2 ; VI. 5, 8.

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excellent deeds and excellent speculations ; and, whatever his fortune be, he will take it in the noblest fashion, and bear himself always and in all things suitably, since he is truly good and " foursquare without a flaw,"

But the dispensations of fortune are many, some great, some small. The small ones, whether good or evil, plainly are of no weight in the scale ; but the great ones, when numerous, will make life happier if they be good ; for they help to give a grace to life themselves, and their use is noble and good ; but, if they be evil, will enfeeble and spoil happiness ; for they bring pain, and often impede the exercise of our faculties.

But nevertheless true worth shines out even here, in the calm endurance of many great misfortunes, not through insensibility, but through nobility and greatness of soul. And if it is what man does that deter- 13 mines the character of his life, as we said, then no happy man will become miserable ; for he will never do what is hateful and base. For we hold that the man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances, as a good general will turn the forces at his command to the best account, and a good shoemaker will make the best shoe that can be made out of a given piece of leather, and so on with all other crafts.

If this be so, the happy man will never become 14 miserable, though he will not be truly happy if he meets with the fate of Priam.

But yet he is not unstable and lightly changed : hep. 27 wlil not be moved from his happiness easily, nor by any ordinary misfortunes, but only by many heavy ones ; and after such, he will not recover his happiness again in a short time, but if at all, only in a considerable period, which has a certain completeness, and in which he attains to gi-eat and noble things.